Use spaces instead of tabs

[loctrice]

Depending on your editor you can always refactor them. If you open a source file in something like vim you can use a quick search and replace. You can always put it back when you are done so when they get the file back they are still happy. You can use sed before and after you work in it. You can replace before you open, and then put it back to the authors preference after you are done.

If it moves, compile it

[cpkilekofp]

The classic solution to the indentation issue (and where braces go in C-like languages, etc.) is the pretty-printer. This is a language-sensitive tool which you may have to build yourself, but many languages have pretty-printers available for them with settings appropriate to that language. For languages that aren't whitespace-sensitive, this allows you to eliminate any whitespace except where required for string separation in the stored file while the pretty-printer formats the stored file into whatever viewing preference you have. This also works with any text editor: pretty-print the source file into a file you will edit, edit that file, then pretty-print it back into a compressed format. Hmmm, sounds like an article for someone there. As for Rule #2, to my mind, no assertion without an explanation or justification just makes good sense. One man's "common sense" is someone else's dearly acquired skill.

[BobJanova]

Yes, precisely (to your second paragraph).

[Chris Meech]

I don't use either. In fact I don't even bother with new lines. My source files consist of one great big long line with no new line at the end of it all. You wouldn't believe how it easy it has become to fix or maintain things. Whenever a question comes up, I just tell one of the junior guys, go and fix it on line 1 in the source file. :)

Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

I don't mind tabs for indenting code, but tabs on the "interior" of a line of code wreak havoc. I wish code editors would allow for indenting with tabs with the tab key and insert spaces with the tab key on the "interior" of lines. For that reason I always stick with "insert spaces with the tab key"

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun

[SkysTheLimit]

Where I work, the code has to go through certification and so a lot of people are looking at the source code using different editors and tools. We also automatically extract things like special comments out of the source code and using spaces makes it easier to view the result in any text editor. We have made it part of our coding standards not to have any tabs in the source code because they just don't come out consistently in all editors. Fortunately, VS has a convenient option to convert all tabs to spaces automatically, so we can still use the tab key for indenting :)

[dazfuller]

I use spaces, tools like Visual studio will automatically use spaces if you press the tab key (if you configure it) so TAB and SHIFT-TAB work fine. Plus if you say "indent by 4 spaces" then it looks the same in everyone's editor whereas tabs can look different and send the formatting crazy. That's my preference anyway and its the preference we enforce on the project I'm working on in the style guidelines. Studio 2010 even has a nice plugin which will ask to "untabify" a document if you open one up and it detects tabs instead of spaces (actually it will do the reverse as well, if that's your preference)

[Paul Sanders the other one]

cpkilekofp wrote:

and the next guy to edit might have tabs set to eight columns, thus ruining my beautiful code layout

Exactly. Things can degenerate into a complete mess.

Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk

[Fabio Franco]

Marc Clifton wrote:

Rule #2 is just good sense.

That's one of the things I replied on his article that I didn't agree with. It's a biased assumption. I myself have always used spaces until recently. I've been converted to the tabs religion and I am loving it.

"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson "Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia

[Fabio Franco]

ahmed zahmed wrote:

I don't mind tabs for indenting code, but tabs on the "interior" of a line of code wreak havoc.

Agreed. But you can still insert spaces with the space bars (after the tab indentation) when you're trying to align multi-line statements.

"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson "Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia

[Ralph Little]

If you use Eclipse, the editor has a nice mixture mode that does this all for you. Tabs for indent, then spaces for alignment. Gives you the best of both worlds. Users can set Tab to whatever they prefer, and the code still looks right.

[Zan Lynx]

Use a code style that doesn't depend on tab size for alignment. Instead of lining up your second line of function parameters with the first line, put all the parameters on separate lines and indent each line. Etc. Then it doesn't break your layout when the tab size changes. Plus, it doesn't make your code lean way over to the right side when you use an especially long function name. And, it makes it possible to use a regular font instead of monospace. Weird, I know.

[Zan Lynx]

Which is why this is better:

if (
something_longer_than_this &&
something_else_long
)

[Lost User]

I suppose that'll work, but that's not in any style guide I've seen. How common is it?

[Zan Lynx]

Not very common, admittedly. I don't understand why. I suppose some people don't like the waste of vertical space.

[dannette]

When I code for the web, sometimes with tabs, when you 'view source' it just isn't pretty - especially if someone else coded it. It might look perfectly fine in my editor but put it on the web and it's all over the place. That's why I like to use spaces.

[TNCaver]

I absolutely agree. Tabs line up for everyone the way they like it, and however their VS is set up - with 3 spaces, 4 spaces, n spaces, whatever. Once we've debated this one to death, maybe next we can settle once and for all where open and close braces should go and how to properly indent them. :laugh:

public void TheRightWay() {
// yer awesum codez here
}

public void TheWrongWay()
{
// yer bad wtf codez here
}

If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

[H Brydon]

That seems to be a style used by somebody being paid per line of code ... but not somebody trying to maximize maintainability of said code...

-- Harvey