* Steven D'Aprano (Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:28:50 -0000) > On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:33:19 +0000, Thorsten Kampe wrote: > > * Steven D'Aprano (Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:37:32 -0000) > >> On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:29:25 +0000, Thorsten Kampe wrote: > >> > I'd personally go for spaces because: > >> > > >> > 1. I don't like things I cannot see (control characters) > >> > >> You can see spaces but not tabs? Your editor is pretty weird. In all > >> the editors I've every used, both spaces and tabs show up as empty > >> white space. > > > > That's because the editor displays those invisible tab control > > characters as something they're not: spaces. > > Editors display tab characters as "indent to next tab stop". That's what > they're for, and any editor that doesn't behave that way is buggy. > > Tab characters are no more invisible than space characters. How can you > see space characters but not tabs? Why aren't space characters invisible > too? Why do you dislike tabs *specifically* because they are invisible, > but like invisible spaces?
If you can't see spaces then that's your problem. I can see (identify) spaces (at least at the beginning of a line). > >> > 2. I never had problems with spaces but plenty with tabs > >> > >> What problems have you had with tabs that aren't related to buggy > >> applications or users that mix tabs and spaces? > > > > Fortunately I don't remember every incident when I stumbled about > > something weird behaving or looking. One thing I do remember is reading > > python source code (not my own) with a pager. The source code was badly > > indented. The pager was not "buggy". > > Given the constraints of the typical pager one-line display, and the > tendency of pagers I've seen to arbitrarily drop leading whitespace *of > any sort* from the start of lines, I'd like to know how you could tell > the indentation was wrong. It was obvious because the blocks didn't make sense. The problem with tabs is that they're interpreted: by Python and by the editor or pager to display them. Spaces are just spaces. Thorsten -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
