one more thing, Walter:  you should really keep your tab size equal to your indentation spacing.  You currently have indent at 4 and tabs at 8 spaces. What this means is that nobody else can take your source and have it look right in their editor unless they have 8 space tabs also.  If the indent and tabs matched, it'd look good no matter what the tab setting was, so long as tabs were used to indent with consistently.

Nitpicking, I know.  ;)

Sean

Believe it or not, there is a good reason for that <g>. The reason is that the console command prompt has 8 character tabs, and so does the printer. I want the code to look right when typed on the screen and printed.

Any editor that does anything but 8 char tabs should have settable tab stops. I'd rather set the editor to match the console and printer defaults than the other way around.

"Sean L. Palmer" <seanpalmer@directvinternet.com> wrote in message news:aq5df7$1phe$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> one more thing, Walter:  you should really keep your tab size equal to
your
> indentation spacing.  You currently have indent at 4 and tabs at 8 spaces. What this means is that nobody else can take your source and have it look right in their editor unless they have 8 space tabs also.  If the indent
and
> tabs matched, it'd look good no matter what the tab setting was, so long
as
> tabs were used to indent with consistently.
>
> Nitpicking, I know.  ;)
>
> Sean
>
>

I figured as much.

You could always use 8 character indentation.  ;)  The point is that things work out much better if they're set to the same value.

I don't think it's unreasonable to have printouts of the source end up having 8 character indentation.  At least it'll be indented "properly" no matter what tabulation is used.  If you use different values, it only ever looks "right" if the editor is set to exactly the same settings as the original author.  And it's difficult to convert source in bulk.

Anyway I'll get off my soapbox.

Sean

"Walter" <walter@digitalmars.com> wrote in message news:aq6asm$2nkr$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Believe it or not, there is a good reason for that <g>. The reason is that the console command prompt has 8 character tabs, and so does the printer.
I
> want the code to look right when typed on the screen and printed.
>
> Any editor that does anything but 8 char tabs should have settable tab stops. I'd rather set the editor to match the console and printer defaults than the other way around.
>
> "Sean L. Palmer" <seanpalmer@directvinternet.com> wrote in message news:aq5df7$1phe$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> > one more thing, Walter:  you should really keep your tab size equal to
> your
> > indentation spacing.  You currently have indent at 4 and tabs at 8
spaces.
> > What this means is that nobody else can take your source and have it
look
> > right in their editor unless they have 8 space tabs also.  If the indent
> and
> > tabs matched, it'd look good no matter what the tab setting was, so long
> as
> > tabs were used to indent with consistently.
> >
> > Nitpicking, I know.  ;)
> >
> > Sean

Hi,

Why have tabs at all?
I set my IDEs to convert tabs to spaces and this prevents layout problems on
different environments.
These days space is not a problem :-)

Tony


"Sean L. Palmer" <seanpalmer@directvinternet.com> wrote in message news:aq5df7$1phe$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> one more thing, Walter:  you should really keep your tab size equal to
your
> indentation spacing.  You currently have indent at 4 and tabs at 8 spaces. What this means is that nobody else can take your source and have it look right in their editor unless they have 8 space tabs also.  If the indent
and
> tabs matched, it'd look good no matter what the tab setting was, so long
as
> tabs were used to indent with consistently.
>
> Nitpicking, I know.  ;)
>
> Sean
>
>

In article <aq7ulu$1b30$1@digitaldaemon.com>, TRex says...
>
>Hi,
>
>Why have tabs at all?
>I set my IDEs to convert tabs to spaces and this prevents layout problems on
>different environments.
>These days space is not a problem :-)
>
>Tony

Personally, I do it because I hate having to hit backspace 4 times instead of 1. The editors that I have used which support treating clumps of spaces as if they were a tab, and backspace over all four of them, always seem to end up doing that somewhere that I wasn't expecting it, resulting in my having to add at least 3 spaces back in.  Since I tend to type faster than I respond, I usually will have backspaced 2 or more times before I realize the editor has done something "weird", which means I've got a lot of spaces to put back.  Probably a silly reason, but strong enough to keep me from using that feature.

I've also been burned by editors that had the tab->space option, but seemed to be incapable of actually doing it...  Or at least, incapable of doing it consistently, which is worse.  I doubt that this is really an issue any more, so it's basically the 4:1 ratio of backspaces that keeps me using tabs.

I also always print from my code editor, so it doesn't matter what the tab spacing of the printer is.  And a lot of programs exist that can "pretty print" code, including re-indenting it, which should get around any perceived inconsistencies.  Unfortunately, most of these tools on Win32 tend to be commercial.  You could probably get "indent" to port through Cygwin, which would work.  Of course, "indent" has a truly stunning list of options, so it might take you awhile to specify exactly the formatting options that you prefer...

And, I must also admit that my programs always print to the printer in graphics mode (hence why the printer tab spacing is irrelevant).  In theory, this is slower, but my data transfer connection is faster than the physical printing machinery, and I don't generally print giant gobs of source - usually no more than 10 pages at a time.

I tend to be an indentation fascist.  When I started work, I used (and still use) 4 space tabs.  One of my coworkers used 3 space tabs.  We had to work on a project together, and it would get very confusing when we started interspersing code.  I was able to force him to switch to 4 spaces through force of will and constant working relationship.  I have given up trying to convert anyone else's style, and simply use one or more of the tools I described to "fix" it to what I like.

My personal whitespace style is to :

1. Always use the tab key for code structure indentation (if's, loops, etc).

2. Always use space characters for any aesthetic indentation (making remaining function arguments line up nicely, or anything else that happens based on having to fold a long line of source code over).  When I do this, I use tab to catch up with the appropriate level of code structure, and then I use spaces for all of the remaining indentation.

This frequently means that I have a line that starts with 2 tab characters, for the code structure, and then has 20-30 space characters.  I do *NOT* want those characters treated as 2-3 tab characters.  So I differentiate between tabs and groups of spaces.

This style has the advantage that anyone who loads my code, regardless of their tab setting, will see it properly.  Since my code structure, and *only* my code structure, changes with the tab setting, and all aesthetic indentation is hardwired through space characters *after* the code structure tabs, everything is fine.  Of course, some editors just can't resist the urge to go in and rewrite my code, or to do their auto-indent with the wrong kinds of characters. I usually don't catch this until it's much too late.  But I try to immediately configure my editor to work the way I want.

Of course, if you print with proportionally spaced fonts, it all goes wacky. But if you are printing source code in proportionally spaced fonts, you need to visit a psychiatrist, or at least a career counselor...

(Why can I *never* post a short message?  I mean well...)
Mac

"TRex" <trex@shani.net> wrote in message news:aq7ulu$1b30$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Why have tabs at all?
> I set my IDEs to convert tabs to spaces and this prevents layout problems
on
> different environments.
> These days space is not a problem :-)

'cuz I'm and old curmudgeon and old habits die hard <g>