On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 8:01 PM, Ludwig, Mark <ludwig.mark@siemens.com>wrote:

> If you just want it to insert a TAB character every time, just map the key
> to self-insert-command.
>

Yes I gathered that this is the only way (or  C-q TAB).  Seems fairly
low-level for such a basic usage...


> Are you familiar with M-i that runs tab-to-tab-stop?  That might be what
> you want, too, especially if you want spaces inserted to 'equal' what the
> TAB character would do on a typewriter, for instance.
>
>
I need tab to be entered as tab without any questions or ambiguity (think
makefiles?)


> Hope this helps,
>
> Mark
>
> From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+ludwig.mark=siemens.com@gnu.org [mailto:
> help-gnu-emacs-bounces+ludwig.mark=siemens.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of
> Rustom Mody
> Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 8:45 AM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: tab character
>
> The tab-always-indent docs say:
>
> -----------------------------
> Controls the operation of the TAB key.
> If t, hitting TAB always just indents the current line.
> If nil, hitting TAB indents the current line if point is at the left margin
> or in the line's indentation, otherwise it inserts a \"real\" TAB
> character.
> If `complete', TAB first tries to indent the current line, and if the line
> was already indented, then try to complete the thing at point.
>
> Some programming language modes have their own variable to control this,
> e.g., `c-tab-always-indent', and do not respect this variable."
>   :group 'indent
> --------------------------------
> Why is there nothing stronger than nil? IOW why is it so hard to just have
> tab be tab with no conditions?
>
> In Miles Bader page on emacswiki http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MilesBader
> he has code for a literal-tab-mode.  So am I right in guessing that that
> is the only approach if one wants tab characters to be entered?
>