Tabs vs Spaces

[Mycroft Holmes]

Nah I like a tight real estate, 2 spaces per tab works best.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - RAH I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP

[Franc Morales]

Tabs because it is just one keypress.

[PIEBALDconsult]

No, TAB stops are by distance, not character count. A half inch is sufficient.

[Greg Utas]

I would've never thought there could be a good argument for tabs, but this sounds like a good way to satisfy everyone. My only question would be what the code looks like outside the IDE, in GitHub or even Notepad, for example.

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[Kevin Marois]

That's exaclty what drove me to ask. GitHub. PR's sometimes don't format correctly.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

[Ravi Bhavnani]

I use 1 tab = 4 spaces. /ravi

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[User 13269747]

I use whatever the project already uses. Some projects use tabs, some use spaces. When I start new projects, I use whatever the specific team[1] already uses - some teams have tabs set up as default in their IDE, some have spaces. In the rare occasion that I start a solo project with no team I tend to go with spaces. [1] I work across multiple teams.

[Wizard of Sleeves]

2½ spaces per tab

Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth. To err is human, to arr is pirate.

[Wizard of Sleeves]

I use the tab key, but my IDE converts them to spaces.

Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth. To err is human, to arr is pirate.

[Lost User]

I never understood that, 8 spaces per tab, on a teletype of all things - sheer lunacy.

[den2k88]

I prefer tabs because when I have to move code from an indentation level to another it requires less deletes. Also allows for fancy editing like a different character width for indentation than for code (it helps for people who have to set the font to 12pt with 125% or 150% magnification active, like yours truly). Also I have worked on a codebase modified by several people in several years with different tools and different indentations. Code was something like

if (condition){
code;
if (cnd2)
{
code;
}
code;
while(something)
{
code;
}
}

Tabs would have fixed the lunacy.

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[OriginalGriff]

:sigh: There's always someone who just wants to watch the world burn, isn't there? OK. You can have your half-a-space provided it's the top half.

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[acego]

I normally use Tab key (4 spaces) but it also depends on the IDE

[Cpichols]

I use a 2-space tab.

[Cpichols]

I only care about what it looks like to the one working on the code. When dealing with changes to legacy code, I follow the patter established, which usually means copy/paste of the disparate numbers of spaces depending on the mood of the coder when it was created in notepad :wtf: I really hate the ripple effect that gives - I mean choose an indentation style and stick with it. I'm happiest when working on fresh apps where I can use auto indenting on vscode. So much pleasanter and I can properly collapse the bits I don't need to see right now. Why would I screw that up with using spaces? Just no.

[Greg Utas]

What does using spaces have to do with collapsing code that you don't need to see right now?

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[JohnDG52]

I prefer tabs - but the VS editor seems to have it's own idea about how they should be rendered, so I often end up using a mixture.

[Cpichols]

You should see this crazy code. It was like they decided arbitrarily each day where to start their nested content.

code

condition
{
code
condition
{
super long lines of code that go all the way off a standard screen with references to deeply nested arrays
}
other code
}

[Cpichols]

Yeah that didn't translate right; guess I should have used " "

[Cpichols]

Plus it's way easier to screw up the number of spaces needed. I guess that IDEs can be set to auto indent with spaces, but if someone else goes in there with notepad, it'll be a mess in a hurry. Using tabs discourages the use of notepad. Is that controlling? Maybe. I am a megalomaniac only in the coding, otherwise I'm very accommodating, so I'm comfortable with that.