In regards to the 'you can't mix and match' rule 3: Actually, The One True Indent style *DOES* mix and match. Specifically, it mixes 'tabs are for indents' and 'spaces are for spacing'.
Furthermore, the general complaint "Do not randomly mix indent styles" is of course applicable, but this is a meta-rule. I don't really see how you can claim that this is a problem with The One True Indent style any more than it is with the all-spaces indent style. It is true that some editors offer an easy "all spaces please" option, and TOTI is less common, but that's a problem with your tools. The major 3 IDEs can all be configured to auto-format in TOTI style. In regards to rule 4: That's misleading as well. TOTI at least offers a future where viewing source on a tiny mobile phone screen is going to go ever so slightly better because of configurable tab stops. With spaces you have to pick the same indent length for all devices; presumably 4, but on a mobile phone you'd definitely want no more than 2. Again this argument seems either a wash or if anything in favour of TOTI over all-spaces. On Jul 1, 12:27 pm, Paul King <[email protected]> wrote: > I tend to be in the 'tabs are evil camp' most of the time. Not that they are > evil but there are some missing rules in Reinier's list. Rule 3: If you use > tabs you must use them everywhere - you can't mix and match and everyone > else must too. Rule 4: Every tool in your toolset including all future ones > must support and allow customisation of tab sizes. If I am browsing source > diffs through fisheye and it converts tabs to 8 spaces for display purposes, > that might be fine on a large screen but less useful on a mobile phone. In > fact, this is the exact scenario where tabs could be so useful but with many > tools, they just aren't right now. It's certainly better than it was 10 > years ago but still has some way to go IMHO. > > Still, it's not something to get too worried about - you should be able to > convert from one style to the other with a keystroke in most IDEs. > > Paul. > > On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 7:48 PM, Mark Volkmann > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > I'm surprised that all the replies to this thread are in favor of tabs > > over spaces. In my experience, the vast majority of developers favor > > spaces. For me there is one main reason I prefer spaces ... printers. > > Sometimes I print code. Printers seem to always use eight spaces for > > tabs which causes many lines to wrap and makes it harder to read the > > code. If there were a universal way to adjust that then I'd be okay > > with using tabs for indentation. > > > This is the same reason why I don't like when lines are longer than 80 > > characters. Many of the lines will wrap when printed. Also, I find it > > harder to read code with long lines. That's why newspaper columns > > don't extend all the way across wide newspaper pages. > > > -- > > R. Mark Volkmann > > Object Computing, Inc. > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "The Java Posse" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<javaposse%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups > > .com> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
