Displaying tabs

[Timothy M. Schaeffer]

I posted this to the xemacs list and no one seemed to understand what I
wanted. Here is the text of my original post:
----
Is there a way to have tabs always displayed as tab-width spaces? I want
tabs to be displayed  as indentation, always the same size, no matter where
on a line it starts.  Do I have to modify the sources to do this?

TIA

Tim S.
----
I do NOT need to hear about tab-width or tab-stop-list.  I want to change
how tabs are DISPLAYED.  E.g.  In the following, assume (= tab-width 8) =>
t.

{
<1     >v = function_call
<2     >    <3 >(arg1, ...);
}

The <...> are tabs.  Tab3 is displayed as 4 characters wide, not 8, to align
with the next tab stop.  I don't care about tab stops, because I am using
tabs as /indentation/ here, not alignment (and I am not using punch cards,
or TSO).  I am using spaces to align things, and I do not want to have to
align everything on specific columns.  This better fits the
file-as-character-stream concept of most modern OSs (and computing tasks),
not the file-as-records concept.  Do I have to put up with this throwback,
or can I have tab3 displayed as 8 characters here?

There could very well be an option in Emacs for this, couldn't there be?
(This could be taken two ways; take both.)

Tim S.