[OT] Auto code reformating / one coding style enforcment.

James Dunne james.jdunne at gmail.com
Mon Aug 14 19:56:02 PDT 2006


Sean Kelly wrote:
> Derek Parnell wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:24:05 +0200, Oskar Linde wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>> This is how Emacs works and has worked for ages. Tabs are not 
>>> directly used for indentation, but rather for optimizing the number 
>>> of spaces needed. I guess at some time in the past, those 7 bytes 
>>> saved here and there were well worth it. It would probably improve 
>>> output speed on old teletypes and save memory at the same time. Those 
>>> old teletypes could not redefine the tab stops anyway (well, I know 
>>> the modern vt100 could, but not the vt52 afaik), so any other use for 
>>> the tab character wasn't realistic.
>>>
>>> Today, the benefits are not as clear... :)
>>
>>
>> Thus my reference to "being locked into the past". The need for this 
>> style
>> is no longer needed and hasn't been needed for quite awhile now. But
>> habits, good and bad, are hard to break.
> 
> 
> With emacs, breaking this particular bad habit is as simple as 
> (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil) :-)
> 
> Sean

<sarcasm>Yeah that would've been the first command I'd have typed in 
when I entered emacs as a complete n00b, after figuring out how to enter 
emacs-LISP commands in the first place.</sarcasm>

-- 
Regards,
James Dunne



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