OSNews > Thread > "RE[2]: Right" by Mystilleef

Elastic Tabstops - the Solution to the 'Tabs vs. Spaces' Issue

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 4th Jul 2006 10:35 UTC, submitted by anonymous

When developping in a large team, you have to make convention about the use of tab in source code. This article suggests a better solution: rather than saying that a tab character (a 'hard tab') will move the cursor until the cursor's position is a multiple of N characters, we should say that a tab character is a delimiter between table cells. This has a nice side effect, since proportional fonts can now be used.

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RE[2]: Right

by Mystilleef on Tue 4th Jul 2006 13:07 UTC in reply to "RE: Right"

Member since:
2005-06-29

My editor Scribes does that. I believe VIM and Emacs also have such capabilities. Not many editors have the functionality but good ones do.

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RE[3]: Right

by TDavis on Tue 4th Jul 2006 13:16 in reply to "RE[2]: Right"

Member since:
2006-06-10

I'll put that on my todo list. Not very hard, unless it's context sensative.

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RE[4]: Right

by Mystilleef on Tue 4th Jul 2006 13:21 in reply to "RE[3]: Right"

Member since:
2005-06-29

The key is to ensure one tab point corresponds exactly to one space character, like most operating system do these days. That way the tab vs spaces argument essentially becomes a moot point. Because a tab will just be a bunch of spaces representing one character.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1