Who are the "spacists"?

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Nathan Ernst <nathan.ernst at gmail.com>:

> Tabs rectify this issue as you can configure them to appear how you
> like to see your code without affecting or impacting any other
> contributors to a code base.
>
> Personally, I used to be a 4-spacer. Now, I prefer 2 spaces. Guess
> what? When I changed my preference, zero lines of source were changed,
> no commits were necessary, and I was happy.

Your scheme is thrown into disarray by the default emacs setup, which
defines C source code indendation levels as follows:

   Level 1: SPC SPC
   Level 2: SPC SPC SPC SPC
   Level 3: SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC
   Level 4: HT
   Level 5: HT SPC SPC

etc.

(You see, in emacs pressing the Tab key is a command to indent the
current line by the "appropriate amount;" it doesn't cause an HT to be
inserted.)

Point is, something's going to have to give, no matter what you do. You
are going to have to issue a binding executive order that is not an
automatic default for everybody.

Where I work, the executive order is: no HT's in files, and use 4-space
indentation.


Marko