Re: indent? [was: Comment block style]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 12:10:07AM +0200, Nicolas Hoizey wrote: > > Seriously: my reason for supporting the "spaces only" format is that > > it's the only thing that looks the same in any program. > > I've seen a lot of messages about this topic, and I still don't agree > with this indentation standard. Some like 4 spaces indenting and > others like 8 spaces indenting. > > With tabs, anybody can configure its own software to make it look as > he wants to. This can't be done with spaces. That's the major misconception here, so I'll repeat why this isn't entirely true: If one person represents a tab character as eight columns and the other represents it as four columns, there is a chance that the code formatted for four column tabs will exceed the 80 column character limit on a eight column tabber's screen. Also, certain code formatting will only line up if the tab size remains constant, e.g.: if ($result == $MyObject->someMethod($data1, $data2, $data3, $data4, $data5)) { statement; } If only tabs were used to format the above code sample, the second line would only line up using the original formatter's tab setting. > Anyway, I know I won't change anything with my humble opinion about > it, but this should be very carrefully explained in the Coding > Standard. It's explained in detail in the archives and in other resources. The coding standard should just define the standard; it needn't explain and justify it. No one would read it if it were a large document. The only standard I'm really willing support that includes tabs _at all_ is the four-column tab standard used in the PHP C source code. -- Jon Parise (jon@csh.rit.edu) . Information Technology (B.S.) http://www.csh.rit.edu/~jon/ : Computer Science House Member