Compare source code

[Mark Wooding]

Tim Harig <usernet at ilthio.net> writes:

> Python is the only language that I know that *needs* to specify tabs
> versus spaces since it is the only language I know of which uses
> whitespace formating as part of its syntax and structure.

You need to get out more.  Miranda, Gofer, Haskell, F#, make(1), and
many others, all use indentation to indicate structure; YAML isn't a
programming language, but it also uses indentation to indicate
structure, as do a number of wiki markup languages; there are also
representations of Lisp S-expressions which use indentation instead of
parentheses.

> Mixed usage may be annoying in other languages; but, it breaks Python.

I disagree.  The Haskell '98 report specifies (correctly) that tabs are
every eight columns, and a tab moves to the next tab stop.  Python makes
the same specification; it's just the users who actually want to stamp
out tabs.

Flamebait: it's not the tabs that cause the problem: it's that some
people are under the mistaken impression that the position of tab stops
in text files is a matter for local preference.

-- [mdw]