Steve D'Aprano wrote:
Unix tools which often assume spaces are used for indentation, and consequently cope badly with tabs. I maintain that makes them "broken" tools,
They're not broken in the context of Unix, where there is a long-standing convention of assuming tab stops every 8 columns. From that point of view, tabs are not formatting instructions, but are just a way of compressing consecutive spaces. If tabs are used according to that convention, Unix tools cope with them just fine.
I'm not even sure that it is true that tabs will break the Unix toolset. But Unix users mostly *believe* it is true.
Tabs used according to non-Unix conventions will break Unix tools. But that doesn't mean the tools themselves are broken, any more than the fact that putting diesel fuel in a petrol car damages it means that petrol engines are broken. Python is in the awkward position of being expected to run on either petrol or diesel. It copes by requiring a particularly refined form of fuel, i.e. not mixing tabs and spaces. -- Greg -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
