creat 1204

... snip stories ...

Perhaps you can, but I've never seen one instance of a programmer breaking code because spaces (rather than TABs) made it unreadable.

Actually, I want them to spend their time thinking about code rather than counting the number of characters they type in. Time spent un-jumbling code messed up by TAB characters is time lost that could have been spent thinking about the code. So is time spent fixing code broken by the un-jumbling.

Also, any good modern screen editor will "emulate" tab characters by inserting the required number of spaces to reach the next tab stop when the TAB key is pressed. Furthermore, editors are so d*mn smart these days that 9 times out of 10 they put the cursor in the correct column when you start a new line, then insert the spaces to get there when you type the next character (provided it isn't another newline). So my kiddies don't spend any more time inserting spaces than they would inserting TABs.

Back in the days when I didn't have a terminal (or PC) on my desk, when I wrote code on notebook paper or marked up paper listings with redlines and paperclips, and handed the edits off to the data entry people, I couldn't care less whether they used tabs, spaces, or whatever magic cookies worked with the machine -- as long as I could read the listings, mark the paper, and as long as they could understand my chicken scratchings and do their job efficiently, (and as long as the mess compiled) we were both happy.

But when programmers are entering their own code, I want them to get what they see on the screen. TAB characters cause surprises. Especially when someone else put the TAB characters in there, using whatever system that made sense to them at the time, but makes no sense to anybody now. Programming has enough surprises as it is.

Regards,

-=Dave -- Change is inevitable, progress is not.