Re: Spaces rather than tabs by a major mode hook

[goncholden <goncholden@protonmail.com>]

------- Original Message -------
On Saturday, June 11th, 2022 at 10:33 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:


> > Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:20:39 +0000
> > From: goncholden goncholden@protonmail.com
> > Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> >
> > > > For instance, how can I get the tab key to just make a tab and
> > > > pressing it again to make another tab. As I can do with spaces.
> > >
> > > You shouldn't need this, not at all. If you set the indentation
> > > levels and variables for the style of these files, typing TAB will
> > > insert as many TAB characters as needed to get to the correct column.
> > > For example, if the line should be indented 3 tab stops, typing TAB
> > > just once will insert all the 3 TABs in one go.
> > >
> > > That is what Emacs indentation commands are about: they insert the
> > > whitespace as necessary according to your settings, so that you never
> > > again should need to count TABs or insert them one by one.
> > >
> > > You should embrace this powerful feature instead of fighting against
> > > it. It does need some setup to adapt to a particular style of
> > > indentation, but that is one-time only, so really worth it.
> >
> > The point here is that they do not have a specific style, meaning the styles vary, but emacs imposes some specific style that one has to set up. And you cannot degress from it.
>
>
> Emacs doesn't impose any style. By "style" I meant how many columns
> should each construct be indented. In Emacs, you can set all the
> parameters of the style one by one via the menu I mentioned, and you
> can do that according to the style used by whoever wrote these files.
> Then you save your customizations, and Emacs will henceforth
> automatically indent according to the style you defined by your
> customizations.

Let me rephrase again.  Emacs imposes indentation rules by requiring said customisations.  These files have not been written by one person but a result of more than 35 years of work by an entire research department for a passive sonar system.  The question about how many columns should each construct be indented, has no answer.