Re: indent-tabs-mode

[Miles Bader]

Nick Roberts <address@hidden> writes:
> OK, thats 2-0.  How about setting indent-tabs-mode to nil?  I think that's
> right: I mean don't insert tabs but spaces.

The default has been `t' for around a zillion years; if you change it
gratitously you're just going to annoy people are accustomed to the
default, for no reason.  The vast majority of applications do not
distinguish in any significant way between tabs and spaces, for good
reason (because doing so is _very confusing_ for the user).

Given that only the most bizarro applications actually care about tabs
vs. spaces, it seems better to simply deal with those rare cases
individually using modes.

[Actually, what are those applications?  Make treats TAB as significant,
but does so in a way that works well with the default settings.]

> Actually many commands seem to do this anyway: c-indent-command,
> lisp-indent-line, so perhaps I've got the wrong end of the stick
> anyway.

Those commands do not do anything special, they simply do what
indent-tabs-mode tells them to do; if indent-tabs-mode is t, they will
insert tabs.

-Miles
-- 
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.