[GRASSGUI] Re: a couple of questions

[William Kyngesburye]

I think using tabs is more of a problem when tabs and spaces are  
mixed.  If ONLY tabs are used, then it doesn't matter what a user's  
preference is - the indents will line up correctly.

On Apr 24, 2007, at 12:13 AM, Michael Barton wrote:

> This is settable in preferences. I can also use spaces I think if  
> that is
> better. Sorry if I misunderstood your earlier comment.
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 4/23/07 9:41 PM, "Glynn Clements" <glynn at gclements.plus.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Michael Barton wrote:
>>
>>>>>  One thing that I notice is that when we both work on a file,  
>>>>> we apparently
>>>>> have different ways of indenting. This produces errors if not  
>>>>> consistent
>>>>> within a method or sometimes within a class. To get in sync, I was
>>>>> wondering
>>>>> how you do indents—spaces or tabs? If spaces, how many? Glynn  
>>>>> Clements
>>>>> recommended tabs and a common indent distance of 4 spaces.
>>>>
>>>> yes, it must be synchronized. Hm, I am using default python-mode in
>>>> Emacs 21.3.1. On my laptop Emacs 22.x.
>>>
>>> I'm using default python-mode tabs in Eclipse. It may be a thing  
>>> of using
>>> tabs or spaces. I can turn all my tabs to spaces. But a recent  
>>> post from
>>> Glynn suggested that tabs were preferable (for some reason I don't
>>> remember).
>>
>> Hmm; I don't recall that.
>>
>> Spaces are more robust, as there's no ambiguity as to how many  
>> columns
>> a space occupies. With tabs, there's always the problem of people
>> thinking that tab width is a preference, and then their code isn't
>> indented correctly (and, in Python, that means that it doesn't work).
>>
>> If everyone always, without exception, used tabs for indentation,  
>> then
>> you could change your editor's tab width with no adverse  
>> consequences.
>>
>> Unfortunately, that's a pretty big "if"; in my experience, any
>> approach which relies upon the concept of "without exception" is
>> essentially doomed.
>>
>> Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you use so long as your editor's
>> tab width is 8 columns. If it's something else, then you *must* use
>> spaces.
>
> __________________________________________
> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
> Arizona State University
>
> phone: 480-965-6213
> fax: 480-965-7671
> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> grassgui mailing list
> grassgui at grass.itc.it
> http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grassgui

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

[Trillian]  What are you supposed to do WITH a maniacally depressed  
robot?

[Marvin]  You think you have problems?  What are you supposed to do  
if you ARE a maniacally depressed robot?  No, don't try and answer,  
I'm 50,000 times more intelligent than you and even I don't know the  
answer...

- HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy