Sir Robert Burbridge wrote:
>
> Max Waterman wrote:
>
>> I feel the need to make my tuppence worth...so I'm gonna :
>>
>> I'm curious how the distinction between 'indent' and 'alignment' has
>> been made. I see them as exactly the same thing; as English words, I
>> mean. It's obvious from the diagram above what is meant, but the purpose
>> of the 'indent' is to 'align'...
>>
>> ...or am I missing something?
>>
>> How is the difference between the two instances above best described?
>> Perhaps 'block indentation' as apposed to 'line-wrapping indentation'?
>>
>> I wonder if it's getting to the point where vim would have to be a
>> compiler in order to make these distinctions accurately. Perhaps that's
>> something that is easier for something like Emacs to do.
>>
>> I would like to be able to make use of a real compiler in order to do
>> this kind of code parsing. I'm told that the gcc people, for example,
>> aren't really interested in doing this.
>>
>> Max.
>>
>>
> Max,
>
> The difference between indentation and alignment (in English, as you
> say), is subtle, but it's there. You alluded to it yourself when you
> said, "but the purpose of the 'indent' is to 'align'". "Indentation" is
> refers to a line's (or block's) horizontal distance from the margin,
> whereas "alignment" refers to its horizontal distance from other
> (usually nearby) lines. So you're right that indentation (varying the
> distance from the margin) is for the sake of alignment (adjusting the
> x-distance from other lines) ... which is exactly why they are not the
> same! It's why something is considered "aligned" (well) only when there
> is uniformity of indentation, but something can be considered indented
> (well) when the indentation varies quite a bit -- such as in code.
>
> Etymologically, "align" is related to "line" -- it means "to line up";
> whereas "indent" is related to "dent" -- it means, "to dent inward" (ok,
> "indent" is a little more complex than that, but it's a reasonable
> synopsis that captures the spirit of it!).
>
> Hope that helps shed some light on it.
>
Hrm. Interesting. I think they obviously have different meaning, else
there wouldn't be two words.
However, I have further thoughts (*all my own opinion, of course*) :
1) tabs are for tabulating - kind of like making tables - not (just) for
indenting. It's supposed to cause the 'cursor' to move to next tab
stop'; ie there's nothing to say you can't use then *within* a line,
mixed with other text,
2) spaces are not for indenting *or* aligning (using the current
parlance) - they're for separating words. For example, what happens if I
want to view with a variable width font - ie the problem most of us are
seeing with these email messages?
This leads me to think that the person requesting this feature should
use tabs and not spaces, and put a tab in the middle of the text to
which he wishes to align.
<tab>if (<tab>thisIsTrue ) {
<tab><tab>DoThis();
}
...or something like that.
Of course, the flexibility to do what is asked/wanted would be nice, but
I don't consider this particular case as being something that *should*
be done because it's *the right way*. On the contrary, IMO, it's more a
side case that is *the wrong way* but would be nice to be able to do.
Yeah, I'm not afraid to say it's wrong (if that's what I think) ...
religious or not :p ... let the flames begin ;)
Max.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist.
For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
