Tabs versus Spaces in Source Code

[Ant]

I think Duncan has hit the nail on the head here really. I totally
agree that conceptually using tabs for indentation is better than using
spaces. Pragmatically though, you can't tell in an editor where spaces
are used and where tabs are used.

Perhaps if editors colored the background of tab characters differently
from spaces this wouldn't be a problem, or if Python was more
restrictive and did not actually allow a mix of tabs and spaces for
indentation there would be no problem - the compiler could throw out an
exception for mixed characters. In reality, neither of these are likely
to be implemented any time soon!

The following quote sums things up nicely I think:

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in
practice there is."

(No idea where I got that from BTW - someone's tag-line probably)