Re: Indention - why spaces?

[Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org>]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 03:29:04AM +0100, Felix Domke wrote:
> Hi kernel hackers,
> 
> yes, i know http://www.purists.org/linux/#indent .
> 
> my question is just: what's the matter of NOT using tabs instead of 
> spaces? i think there must be one, otherwise everybody would use tabs.
> 
> I know the thing about "more than 3 levels of indention *suck*" (but i'm 
> not sure if i have really understand this yet in my coding style, but 
> who cares..), but i like tab characters more than spaces, simply because 
> it removes all the discussion about the best indention width. some 
> people use ~180 character-consoles, some use 80 ones.Whats the reason of 
> not giving the freedom to choose whatever he likes?
> 
> i don't want to change anything, i just like to know WHY people use 
> spaces. are they somehow unportable? (i don't think so)

spaces are a workaround for broken editors.  But Linux developers have a
"use the best tool for your job" approach so we don't care :)

As someone pointed to a paper by a mozilla hacker in this thread here's
another advice:  don't use mozilla to send non mime-encoded patches, they
even implemented their brain-dead tab expansion policy in their mailer.

*sigh*