Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!gatech!udel!udccvax1!bryden
From: bryden@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Christopher F. Bryden)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: tabs in vi
Message-ID: <4213@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Date: 21 Aug 89 18:53:27 GMT
References: <7901@ardent.UUCP>
Reply-To: bryden@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Christopher F. Bryden)
Organization: University of Delaware (ACIT account)
Lines: 15

In article <7901@ardent.UUCP> landay@ardent.com (James A. Landay) writes:
}Is there a way to make it so that when ever I hit the TAB key
}in 'vi' that I get 4 spaces rather than an actual tab?  I would
}rather not have to run expand after running vi, as I would only
}want to do that if I actually changed the file.

This isn't what you want to know, but...
:%s/\	/\ \ \ \ /g
      ^   ^ ^ ^ ^
     tab   four spaces
-- 
arpa  : bryden@vax1.acs.udel.edu |  Just another person with his foot so far
bitnet: AIT05167 at ACSVM        |  down his throat that he's sh*ting shoelaces.
plato : bryden/itpt/udel          ------------------ Who?  Me?  Naw...  Yes?
uucp  : ...{unidot,uunet}!cfg!udel!udccvax1!bryden | You've got to be kidding.