On Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:48:58 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote: > On 2013-04-08, Nobody <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote: >> On Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:30:45 +0000, Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> >>> Am I the only one here who has used a typewriter? >>> >>> Tab stops were set manually, to a physical distance into the page, >>> using a mechanical stop. This long predates the "rule" that tab stops >>> are every 8 characters. >> >> And your point is? > > The point is that there is little historical precedent for assuming that > tab stops are evenly and equally spaced across the page (let alone one > particular fixed, even spacing) -- and people who mix spaces and tabs > based on such false assumptions are responsible for their own bleeding > foot. > >> Typewriters don't have a tab "character". The information regarding tab >> stops is conveyed out-of-band from the typist to the typewriter, and >> doesn't need to persist beyond the time taken to type the document. > > And the same is true when you don't mix tabs and spaces when indenting > Python code. If you use tabs alone when indenting Python code it > doesn't matter where the tabs are set -- they don't even have to be > equally spaced -- the meaning of the source file is unambiguous. > > If you mix tabs and spaces, then you've got to provide out-of-band > information regarding the position of the tab stops in order to make the > source code unambiguous. Since there's no mechanism to provide that OOB > tab stop info, mixed tabs and spaces isn't accepted.
Personally I have always used 4 spaces. I use it in SQL, shell scripts and Python. It makes code simple to read, and unambiguous. The fact of Python enforcing it (or all tabs; a poor second choice) is *a good thing*, easy and natural IMHO. No need for "end if" or "end loop" or "fi". One wonders whether OP is simply trolling. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list