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Elastic Tabstops — An End to Tabs vs. Spaces?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stretchy-logic dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Along with Vi versus Emacs, the tabs versus spaces argument must rank as one of the classic holy wars among coders. Here's an attempt to solve it by making tabstops expand or shrink to fit their contents. The concept's pretty cool to use, so be sure to have a play with the demo!"

6 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. From Wiki by neonprimetime · · Score: 4, Funny

    Use of the term "Holy War" implies that the root of the disagreement is a clash of values, and intractible of resolution except by agreeing to disagree.

    My bible says it is morally wrong to use Vi.

    1. Re:From Wiki by jc42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      My bible says it is morally wrong to use Vi.

      Well, of course it is. VI is Latin for 6, which is 1/3 of 666, and we know what that stands for.

      As further proof, check vi's origins. It came from Berkeley, and their BSD system has a little d[a]emon as a symbol. Spawn of Satan, QED.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    2. Re:From Wiki by DesertWolf0132 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mine says,

      "And behold sayeth the Lord, thou shalt edit thine text in Vi and Vi alone, even when thou art forced by the unclean luser to useth the operating system of unholiness. Thou shalt always keep a copy of the Holy editor on thine key of the USB lest thou shalt fall into temptation and edit thine text in the way of the unclean. Any who useth Emacs or the accursed notepad shalt be stricken from the Book of the Holy Sysadmin for all eternity. So sayeth the Lord." -1st Epistle to the Admins of Systems 1:15-16

      There it is in black and white. Vi is the way of truth and light. All others are unclean.

      --
      No animals were harmed in the making of this sig.
      Well, there was that one puppy, but he is all better now.
  2. Re:A standard tab length would be easier by linvir · · Score: 4, Funny

    I move that we temporarily adjourn proceedings and reconvene on Thursday of next week, for the dupe.

  3. Re:A standard tab length would be easier by kevlarman · · Score: 2, Funny

    i was about to comment on how key combinations like that are why i use emacs, then i realize...
    C-Space C-c } Tab

    --
    A mouse is a device used to point to the xterm you want to type in
  4. Uh... ok... by zizzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read the article and played his demo. I'm not excited by this at all for 2 reasons: it invents yet another model of tab spacing and it encourages use of tabs.

    Tabs just need to go away so we can get back to real debates, like CR vs. CR/LF vs. LF.