I totally agree to follow a convention but the first line in the convention says "The exact construction of the indentation (spaces vs. tabs) is unspecified.". So there's no need to replace tabs into spaces according to the convention.
-Jeroen On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 10:34 AM, Jacques Le Roux < [email protected]> wrote: > Actually it's just a matter of convention and we chose this one > http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConventions.doc3.html#313 > > The intention is to get rid of most of all these comments and changes we > have to do as commiters... > > Patch ahead : 800 KB, 14574 lines (not the bigger I did, changing licence > headers was twice bigger) > > Jacques > > From: "Jeroen van der Wal" <[email protected]> > > Sorry for my late response, I've been away from a pc for a couple of days. >> We've had debates about tabs versus spaces several times and this quote >> reflects my opinion: >> >> "The debate over whether to use tab characters or spaces for indenting >> code >> is probably as old as Fortran. In fact, the arguing over this topic has >> led >> to many a newsgroup and mailing-list flame war, many whose intensity far >> surpass any Saturday night Quake Area session your thirteen brother ever >> saw. >> Well, I'm here to set the record straight on why tabs are a better choice. >> Like good object oriented design, it's simply a matter of recognizing the >> correct abstractions and encapsulating them appropriately... >> >> A tab in this context represents a unit of indentation, which should be >> separate from the "physical" size of the representation of that unit (on >> the >> screen). I happen to set all my editors to render that unit as equivalent >> to >> 4 spaces on the screen (even though the file only knows there is one unit >> of >> indentation, the tab character), but you may set your editor to render it >> as >> 2, 4, 8, or 100 spaces - whatever floats your boat. Point is, I don't care >> how big you want the indentation unit to be, and you shouldn't have to >> care >> how big I want(ed) it either. Any decent editor will let you control how >> tabs are rendered, and should preserve them in the file regardless of how >> they were rendered on the screen. >> >> By always using tabs, my code always looks consistent when I write it and >> you can always make it the indentation as big or small you want it. What >> is >> important to the notion of a "unit of indentation" is not the size of the >> indents, but rather the position of statements relative to each other. >> Using >> tabs all the time preserves that property, but using spaces unnecessarily >> merges the notion of your or my particular visual choice with the notion >> of >> relative positioning. >> >> The more important effect of using tabs is that we abstract out the "unit >> of >> indentation" and each implement it with whatever number of "simulated" >> spaces we prefer. Later, if I decide my indentation unit rendering is not >> the right size for me, I don't have to go change a bunch of existing code >> to >> be consistent nor do you have to even know I changed my mind. >> Now, isn't that beautiful? I wish everyone would see this and quit using >> spaces to indent code and, more generally, trying to make coding standards >> that specify such a "personal preference" kind of thing."" >> >> So is this patch really worth the trouble? >> >> -Jeroen >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:08 AM, Jacques Le Roux < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> If nobody disagree I will do that tomorrow. It will be a massive no >>> functionnal change. >>> >>> >>> Jacques >>> >>> From: "Jacques Le Roux" <[email protected]> >>> >>> I will eventually do that later when the BigDecimal branch will have >>>> been >>>> merged >>>> >>>> Jacques >>>> >>>> From: "Jacques Le Roux" <[email protected]> >>>> >>>> If nobody complains, I will replace *all* tabs by 4 spaces in some >>>>> days. >>>>> It will be one sole big patch without any other changes >>>>> >>>>> Jacques >>>>> >>>>> From: "Stephen Rufle" <[email protected]> >>>>> >>>>> +1 >>>>>> :) >>>>>> >>>>>> Jacques Le Roux wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Currently there are 2351 tabs in Java files. We could easily replace >>>>>>> all of them by 4 spaces. What do you think ? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Maybe we could do the same in XML files, there are 32 786 tabs in >>>>>>> them... >>>>>>> >>>>>>> In FreeMarker files : only 563 tabs, in Groovy only 668 >>>>>>> >>>>>>> JavaScrip files have 242 088 of them, most js files come from >>>>>>> outside... >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Thanks >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Jacques >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>
