From: Patrick Bennett <patrick.bennett@...>
Date: 2005-03-23T07:34:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Any guides for good coding in Ruby?

Martin Ankerl wrote:

>> I try to follow the style that is predominant in the Ruby parts of the
>> Ruby source.  Also, see:
>
>
> I also do this, but there is one thing I cannot stand: every ruby lib 
> uses 2 spaces for indentation! IMHO it should be tabs, and *only* 
> tabs. This is much better, because in almost every editor it is 
> possible to set the tab width to whatever one likes. I hate 2 spaced 
> sourcecode, because I usually set one tab == 8 spaces, and use a 
> non-fixed font.
>
I dislike 2 spaces as well, but tabs are worse.  It's *extremely* and I 
mean *extremely* rare for me to see a source file that uses tabs correctly.
Tabs can *never* be used for anything other than indenting the first 
non-tab character on a line.  That's it.  As soon as they're used 
anywhere else on a line following non-tab characters to 'line up' code, 
then you've broken the ability for other users to use different tab 
settings and view your code the same way.  The *only* way of assuring a 
consistent representation of source code is to use spaces and only 
spaces for indentation and column alignment.  Modern editors make using 
spaces for tabs a non-issue anyway.

Patrick Bennett