From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: On Tabs and Spaces Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:51:59 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: References: <634393B0-734A-4884-93E3-42F7D3CB157F@mit.edu> <471476B7.5050105@users.sourceforge.net> <8c5c35580710160204s5a4f9fb3j68c0a86c4d080cb7@mail.gmail.com> <47148F72.1090602@users.sourceforge.net> <1192548367.3821.4.camel@lt21223.campus.dmacc.edu> <3awb7zw6.fsf@blue.sea.net> <20071016193605.GA829@glandium.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=us-ascii Cc: Jari Aalto , git@vger.kernel.org To: Mike Hommey X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Tue Oct 16 21:52:38 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IhsSz-0007Uc-0w for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:52:37 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S934520AbXJPTwU (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:52:20 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932987AbXJPTwT (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:52:19 -0400 Received: from smtp2.linux-foundation.org ([207.189.120.14]:36781 "EHLO smtp2.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S934520AbXJPTwS (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:52:18 -0400 Received: from imap1.linux-foundation.org (imap1.linux-foundation.org [207.189.120.55]) by smtp2.linux-foundation.org (8.13.5.20060308/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id l9GJq0FY022960 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:52:01 -0700 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by imap1.linux-foundation.org (8.13.5.20060308/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id l9GJpxUT012724; Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:51:59 -0700 In-Reply-To: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.718 required=5 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.0-osdl_revision__1.47__ X-MIMEDefang-Filter: lf$Revision: 1.188 $ X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.53 on 207.189.120.14 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Tue, 16 Oct 2007, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > But when it comes to computers, 8-character wide tab stops is the > de-facto standard. It's what every single terminal defaults to. It's the > only thing that some printers/terminals support. Anything else is by > definition non-standard. Side note: one reason you *have* to use 8-character wide tab stops if you want to be sane is that while your editor may have alternate tab-stops, but when you look at the sources any other ways or on any other setup, the default is *always* going to be that 8-character wide tab-stop. Do a "git cat-file -p :Makefile", and it will default to using "less". Have you added "-x2" to you LESS environment variable? Has everybody else? Not likely. Or what happens when you just cat it straight, without any less at all? In short: using anything but 8-char wide tab-stops is INSANE, because it will inevitably showing the same source code in different ways depending on which editor or other environment you use. In contrast, if you just accept that 8-wide tabs are a fact, you never see any of these issues. Everything "just works". Linus