Re: underline-line

[Tim X]

pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon) writes:

> Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null> writes:
>
>> Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> writes:
>>
>>> pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon) writes:
>>>
>>>> Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> writes:
>>>> There should be no problem with tabs, because there should be not tab
>>>> in text files.
>>>
>>> I do not use them, but I know that other people do. Better to describe
>>> the consequences then, so that people are not taken by surprise.
>>>
>>>
>>>> The only place where prefix tabs are allowed, for historical reasons
>>>> is in Makefile.  
>>>
>>> I know a lot of people who use it for indenting and it is used for
>>> 'tables'. But maybe I should give a warning when tabs are found in the
>>> text.
>>> But maybe I should document the function works with 'clean' text files.
>>
>> I personally don't think tabs are a problem What is a problem is when
>> you get source files that have a mixture of tabs and spaces where they
>> are not used consistently. 
>>
>> Using tabs for indent can actuallly be very useful. If I'm working with
>> a team and we all have different preferences for how large our code
>> indents are, rather than forcing a standard indent size on all team
>> members, we can just use tabs and each member can set the tab width to
>> their preferred indent size i.e. 2 spaces, 4 spaces, 8 spaces etc. 
>
> C-x h C-M-\
>
> I'd even put the equivalent in find-file-hook...
> (and possibly the same in save-file-hook with the project parameters).
>
>
>
>> The problem is when you have some people indenting using spaces and some
>> using tabs. Then all the indenting gets screwed up. 
>>
>> I don't have an issue with tabs in Makefiles. The emacs Makefile mode
>> can show tabs/spaces, so its easy to see when something is wrong/missing
>> a leading tab. 
>>
>> I doubt we can change make effectively. There are millions of lines of
>> makefile code with tabs out there (I was told there are more lines of
>> Makefile code out there than Ruby). Much of this code is in projects
>> that are unlikely to have the inclination or resoruces to want to modify
>>  their Makefiles to remove the tabs. Changing make to handle just
>>  generic whitespace (i.e. space or tab) would be possible, but it won't
>>  remove tabs from the equation. We are pretty much stuck with them for
>>  the time being.
>
> Makefile:2:warning TAB used instead of space
> Makefile:3:warning TAB used instead of space
> Makefile:4:warning TAB used instead of space
> Makefile:6:warning TAB used instead of space
> Makefile:7:warning TAB used instead of space

Yes, but my point is there is a huge amount of makefiles out there with
tabs and that isn't going to change. The amount of legacy makefiles with
tabs means we are not going to get rid of them any time soon i.e. we are
stuck with them for the time being.

Tim> ...

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au