On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:39 AM, Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote:

> John Yates <john@yates-sheets.org> writes:
>
> > ​They made sense 40 years ago when my 2315 disk pack held 1.2MB.
> > These days I too think they suck.​
>
> I think that if you notice whether the indentation is made from tabs,
> spaces or a mix of them, you're probably doing something wrong.
>

"Something" is not very helpful.  Would you care to suggest a set of best
practices to insulate me (or more importantly a programming newbie) from
<ht> pain?​

Pain extends beyond mere emacs editing.  ​I have worked on projects where
tabstops were at multiples other than 8.  I commend to you the task of
writing
a language frontend that tries to report errors in context in such
settings.​
And - assuming you believe in unit testing - providing tests for that
facility.

Not saying it cannot be done.  (I have done it.)  But it does leave one
wondering why such an anachronism is allowed to persist.

/john