How to set tab to be 4 (!) spaces for indention?

How to set tab to be 4 (!) spaces for indention?

[xz]

It's so annoooooooooooooying that the default indention is only 2
spaces.

I googled a lot but cannot change this.

For example, I tried

(setq default-tab-width 4)

in the .emacs file.

But it don't change nothing!

How can I make the indention to be 4 spaces?

Re: How to set tab to be 4 (!) spaces for indention?

[Tyler Smith]

On 2007-12-18, xz <zhang.xi.cn@gmail.com> wrote:
> For example, I tried
>
> (setq default-tab-width 4)
>
> in the .emacs file.
>
> But it don't change nothing!

No, it changed how tab characters are displayed. Problem is,
indentation is not created with tab characters ;) If you're working in
cc-mode, for example, you will want to use something like:

(setq c-basic-offset 4)

This is called 'syntax-driven indentation', as described (generally) in
the manual node (emacs)Indentation. Details will depend on the
particular mode you're in, so it will take a bit of poking around to
figure out how to set the correct value for the language you're
coding in.

HTH,

Tyler

RE: How to set tab to be 4 (!) spaces for indention?

[Drew Adams]

> It's so annoooooooooooooying that the default indention is only 2
> spaces.
> I googled a lot but cannot change this.
> For example, I tried
> (setq default-tab-width 4)
> in the .emacs file.
> But it don't change nothing!
> How can I make the indention to be 4 spaces?

Does this help?

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/IndentationBasics
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/TabStopList

You can also read the Emacs manual. Try `i' in the manual, enter `tab' and
hit the TAB key to see manual sections that are pertinent.