Emit white spaces, when you hit tab. Why?

[std10093]

I read somewhere that I trust
"You should set your editor to emit spaces when you hit the tab key. "
But the resource doesn't explain why and I can not ask them!

So..why?

The only thing that comes to my mind is that when you want the code to be of minimum length, because you want to be used on the internet, like jQuery for example, then you parse the file and you remove all spaces. However, I think that this is not it, because how hard would it be to say to the program that removes the spaces, to remove tabs too.

[tabstop]

Because if you open the program in any other editor, or send the file to someone else, your tabs will look stupid (since no one can ever agree on where the tabstops should be set).

[std10093]

..tabstops

Thank you tabstop!

[anduril462]

Enjoy some reading on one of the greatest "religious wars" in computer history: https://www.google.com/search?q=tabs+vs+spaces. I'm sure it's even more contentious than the Emacs vs Vi war. Maybe more so than the old OS or browser debates. Probably wont top the cola wars though.

I prefer spaces (4 of them) over tabs, but I much prefer "doing what the rest of the code does" to "enforcing my own 4-space indentation on a small part of the code, so it looks different than everything else and makes things hard to read".

One other plus with using spaces instead of tabs is that it works well for forums. The only other thing I will say, if you use spaces, is pick a sensible number of spaces for indentation. I think 2-8 is typical and reasonable, I prefer 4, but my current job uses 2, which has grown on me, but I feel like 6 is too much. Also, make it consistent for every level of indentation. I mean, every tab should move the same number of spaces. You may laugh, but I worked at one place where a significant portion of the code had a very consistent indentation pattern, as a whole, but each level was different. 5 spaces for the first level of indentation, then 3 thereafter, except switch statements, in which the case statements were indented 2 from the switch keyword, and the code in each case statement was indented 2 from it's case label(s).

[Mario F.]

On the matter of spaces vs. tabs, or even the number of spaces in indentation, there should be no compromise. There should be no "it's a matter of taste". As someone who worked with development teams all my life, one thing I can say: code formatting is worth fighting for. It's one of the few issues on code style that is worth fighting for. And if you are in a position to impose your will, you go ahead and use that power.