Tabs versus Spaces in Source Code

[Edward Elliott]

achates wrote:
> A tab is not equivalent to a number of spaces. It is a character
> signifying an indent, just like the newline character signifies the end
> of a line. 

This link posted over in comp.lang.perl.misc expands on that:

http://numeromancer.dyndns.org/~timothy/tab-width-independence/description.html

To me, tabs are like gotos.  In the wrong hands, they can be abused. 
Novices will do the most hideous things with them.  So do we just ban gotos
alogether?  No - we structure their use to avoid the most obnoxious
mistakes and live with the rest in a power/abuse tradeoff.  Before you
object that modern languages don't use gotos, think again.  Break and
continue are merely restricted forms of goto, as are exceptions.  Don't
throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Make better tools that allow the
good uses and prevent the bad.

-- 
Edward Elliott
UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
complangpython at eddeye dot net