I hate you all

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.200.1365258042.3114.python-list at python.org>,
 Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 12:52 AM, Nobody <nobody at nowhere.com> wrote:
> > Historically, software and hardware which assigns a meaning to a tab
> > character has come in two flavours:
> >
> > 1. Tab stops are every 8 columns; this cannot be changed.
> > 2. Tab stops are configurable, defaulting to every 8 columns.
> 
> 3. Tab stops are measured in something other than characters.
> 
> With variable-width fonts, it's illogical to set tab stops in
> characters. DeScribe Word Processor defined them in centimeters, way
> back in the early... well, I didn't meet it till the 90s, but I don't
> know how long it had been around before that.

What makes sense for a word processor and what makes sense for a 
programming language are two very different things.

Word processors are almost always working with blocks of running text, 
set in proportional fonts, often with multiple font sizes and styles.  
It is usually assumed that line breaks are ephemeral, i.e. as the text 
gets edited and reformatted, lines will re-flow.

Program text is almost always(*) displayed in a fixed-width font.  No 
font information is carried along with the program text at all; it is 
assumed the reader will pick a font and size of their own preference, 
with the only requirement being that it's monospaced.

(*) There was a fad about 10 or 15 years ago to print code samples in 
books in proportional fonts.  Prentice-Hall seemed to be particularly 
guilty of this.  Fortunately, common sense prevailed and everybody has 
gone back to monotype.