Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!ns!ddb From: ddb@ns.UUCP (David Dyer-Bennet) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Imposed indentation standards don't work Message-ID: <1049@ns.UUCP> Date: 29 Dec 88 21:59:47 GMT References: <3229@ingr.uucp> <253@athertn.atherton.com> <9166@smoke.brl.mil> Reply-To: ddb@ns.UUCP (David Dyer-Bennet) Organization: Terrabit Software Lines: 22 In article ho5cad!wjc writes: :Indenting is :done with tabs, right? Not spaces, and not combos of spaces and tabs, :right? No, indentation is done with white space. Due to inconsistent interpretations by various hardware and software tools, the only reliable representation for white space is as "spaces" and "tabs" with an implicit 8-character tab presetting. And you could argue that tabs were too risky. The one thing you should NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, do is treat the tab character as something other than a "move to the next 8-column boundary" command. If you do, your indentation will be very badly garbled on many, many video and hardcopy output devices. Most. Nearly all. -- -- David Dyer-Bennet ...!{rutgers!dayton | amdahl!ems | uunet!rosevax}!umn-cs!ns!ddb ddb@Lynx.MN.Org, ...{amdahl,hpda}!bungia!viper!ddb Fidonet 1:282/341.0, (612) 721-8967 hst/2400/1200/300