From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tom Tobin Subject: Re: On Tabs and Spaces Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:18:20 -0500 Message-ID: <1192565900.6430.16.camel@athena> 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> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: git@vger.kernel.org To: Linus Torvalds X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Tue Oct 16 22:18:43 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 1IhssE-0004sd-6N for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:18:42 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755809AbXJPUSb convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:18:31 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751716AbXJPUSb (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:18:31 -0400 Received: from py-out-1112.google.com ([64.233.166.178]:3704 "EHLO py-out-1112.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751478AbXJPUSa (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:18:30 -0400 Received: by py-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id u77so3899297pyb for ; Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:18:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.35.121.12 with SMTP id y12mr9560467pym.1192565907245; Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:18:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?127.0.0.1? ( [208.75.86.189]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id f51sm7192935pyh.2007.10.16.13.18.22 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:18:23 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Evolution 2.12.0 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Tue, 2007-10-16 at 12:20 -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > The only sane solution is the one the kernel and git have always used= :=20 > tabs are 8 spaces wide, and anybody who disagrees can go screw themse= lves.=20 > If you don't have 8-character tabs, you *will* get odd indentation. >=20 > And no, the answer is not to say "don't use tabs at all" and replace = them=20 > by spaces. The answer is *also* not "tabs are just for initial code=20 > indents", because not only will most sane editors never even show the= =20 > difference, it's simply not how people work. So such a rule about=20 > invisible things doesn't work. [...] > The fact that some projects have encouraged bad coding style and *ins= ane*=20 > tab values is not a git problem. We should teach people to do *better= *,=20 > not become worse just because others have done idiotic things. I'm reading two different ideas here, and it seems like you're conflating the two =E2=80=94 and, in the process, telling some pretty s= mart people (smarter than me, anyhow) to go fuck themselves. If a project uses tabs, your statement regarding 8-char-width tabs make= s sense; you need some rule by which you can assume others are viewing th= e same thing you are. But you then dismiss out of hand the option of using all spaces; Python has been getting along perfectly well for quite some time by following this rule, and my experience with the language leads me to believe it's the wiser of the choices. Questions over tab width simply *go away*; you pick an indentation level (Python uses 4) and stick with it. I'm not arguing that git should switch to all spaces; projects tend to become set in their ways, and consistency can be valuable. I'm merely pointing out that all-spaces is a quite *sane* option, even if it's one git doesn't choose.