From: MikkelFJ <mikkelfj-anti-spam@...>
Date: 2003-08-13T04:04:38+09:00
Subject: Re: [Devculture] ruby question - try Python also (fwd)


"Albert Wagner" <alwagner@tcac.net> wrote in message
news:20030811184028.6a1197ee.alwagner@tcac.net...

> > A religous concept, but spaces are IMHO best when source is shared
between
> > multiple developers.
>
> Just curious why you would think that.  A tab can be be equivalent to any
number of spaces, per the reader's preference.  Spaces force the reader to
accept your idea of proper indentation.

Eric already answered the most important reason.

If you want to reformat with spaces you can sometimes use autoformatting
features
of editors, or you can do a regular expression search replace /^\s\s/ to
/^\s\s\s/ for example (or even to tabs if you like).
So you don't really loose anything by using space but up front spaces print
nice in all editors.
You can't avoid the occasional space in indentation so tabs generally only
work for one specific width.

I tend to use either two or four spaces - in Ruby I tend to use only two
spaces.
Using three spaces makes it difficult to quickly add a new level between two
other levels. And again this is also difficult if I had been using tabs.

Typically have my editor set to autoexpand tabs to 4 spaces so I can either
tab or hit space twice.

Please don't flame - as I said this is a religous issue - I have just
augmented my view upon request.

Mikkel