Tabs are *MISUNDERSTOOD*, *EVIL* AND *STUPID*, end of discussion. (Re: Tabs versus Spaces in Source Code)

[PoD]

On Thu, 18 May 2006 10:33:58 +0200, Christophe wrote:

> PoD a écrit :
>> On Wed, 17 May 2006 21:37:14 +0800, Andy Sy wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>If tabs are easily misunderstood, then they are a MISfeature
>>>and they need to be removed.
>>>
>>>>From the Zen of Python:
>>>
>>>"Explicit is better than implicit..."
>>>"In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess..."
>>>"Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules..."
>> 
>> 
>> Exactly.
>> How many levels of indentation does 12 spaces indicate?
>> It could be 1,2,3,4,6 or 12.  If you say it's 3 then you are _implying_
>> that each level is represented by 4 spaces.
> 
> Actually, who said you had to always use the same number of spaces to 
> indent ? 12 = 6 + 6 = 4 + 4 + 4 but also 12 = 2 + 10 = 1 + 1 + 3 + 3 + 4 :D

Thus supporting my assertion that space indenting is implicit not
explicit. Spaces are evil.

> 
>> How many levels of indentation is 3 tabs?  3 levels in any code that
>> you will find in the wild.
> 
> No, it could be 3 levels or 3 tabs per level or 2 tabs for the first
> level and 1 tab for the second ...

Could be but wouldn't be.

Maybe what Python should do (but never will given the obsession with using
spaces) is only allow one level of indentation increase per block so that

def foo():
<TAB><TAB>return 'bar'

would return a syntax error