From: Stephen Kellett Date: 2005-08-06T20:21:07+09:00 Subject: Re: Yet Another useless Ruby 2 Idea In message <87u0i4ia93.fsf@wigwam.deepwood.net>, Daniel Brockman writes >> The number of times a visually correct Python script I've >> written doesn't work because I've mixed up tabs and spaces > >I cannot believe you haven't resolved this trivial problem >by simply not using tabs. Make your editor refuse to save a I write lots of code in C++ and assembler, you get into a habit of using tabs to format your code. This is very hard to leave behind, you press tab without even thinking about it, its automatic. Watching most software engineers at work, I think this is pretty much the norm. Examining the source code sent to me for customer support/debugging issues leads me to the same conclusion. The idea of pressing tab and having multiple whitespace chars inserted is horrible, it makes deleting what should be a tab a multi-delete operation. Truly dreadful. It is very hard to change your editing/typing style from language to another when they should be the same. I want a language to be easy to use. I should not have to use a special IDE/editor to display different invisible characters - I should be concentrating on the code itself not the issues around how it is typed. Its as if driving a car I should be counting the number of kerb stones I pass rather than actually concentrating on the job at hand. Or playing one mandolin I have to count the number of frets each time a fret a note but on the other mandolin I just play the instrument. Its just nonesense. Whitespace should be that - whitespace, but Python thinks otherwise. >The problem with makefile syntax is its dependence on tabs; Python >fixed this. I disagree. It is another form of the same problem - mixing different forms of whitespace. >Why anyone would want to still use tabs beggars belief. Because it involves less typing and makes formatting a lot easier? I think you are in a minority on this, I've yet to meet anyone that writes code that doesn't use them. In 24 years of writing software that is a reasonable sample size. Anyway, from the replies to this thread it seems that sense prevails and Ruby users generally dislike the whitespace formatting idea. Stephen -- Stephen Kellett Object Media Limited http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk/software.html Computer Consultancy, Software Development Windows C++, Java, Assembler, Performance Analysis, Troubleshooting