Re: indent-tabs-mode

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

> 8-column tab stops have been standard since before 1970.  All editors
> should assume this, and I am sure most of them do.

I agree with your first sentence and wished the second sentence were
true. Note that we're not just talking editors, but anything that can
view source code including printers, terminals (and myriads of programs
running there), and presentation programs. The source code might also be
viewed by folks outside of your organization that you cannot control.

More significant is that a handful of editors, Emacs excluded, also
confuse indentation with the tab stop.

Anyway, it's been my experience that the best practice in an
heterogeneous environment is to specify an indent level and the use of
spaces instead of hard tabs. More important, you can add a commit check
for the presence of a hard tab to enforce your policies. Just my 2c.

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD