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

[Sean Kelly]

James Dunne wrote:
> 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) :-)
> 
> <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>

*snort*  I'll admit emacs is pretty non-intuitive, but this is a setting 
I inherited from my first .emacs file and it's been present ever since.


Sean