Chris writes:

 > My problems with whitespace are that 1) I have no control over it -- I 
 > don't ever want to hit Tab and have nothing happen, 2) I don't know how to 
 > customize it, and 3) it looks like Emacs is not saving tabs as tabs (even 
 > though I thought I told it to), so that I can't pleasantly edit files that 
 > have been touched by Emacs.
 > 
 > I'm not looking for quick fixes / code samples here; I'm willing to do some 
 > work, but I'm having a hard time getting started. By the way, Gnu sells a 
 > "Introduction to Emacs Lisp Programming" (I think), that's only available 
 > online. I can get by in Lisp, and I've read the online reference manual, 
 > but it's a little dry.
 > 

Indentation of Java source code is handled by an Emacs package called
cc-mode. cc-mode is very powerful but not very user friendly. If
you're really serious about using Emacs to do software development,
you'll need to make the effort to master cc-mode. Start by studying
the cc-mode documentation that comes with Emacs. All cc-mode
indentation options are settable via Lisp variables. If you can write
a setq statement, you know all the Lisp you need to know to use
cc-mode. Better yet, use Emacs' customize-variable command to avoid
writing any Lisp.

Finally, you should make a practise of including your .emacs file
when asking for help. An .emacs file tells a would-be helper what
you really told Emacs as opposed to what you thought you told
Emacs.

- Paul 

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