One of the most important debates has now been settled.

[Red Squirrel]

Tabs or spaces?

Bill Gates says tabs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme...es_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/dux7cln/

 

[Greenman]

Should I ever chose to code (or learn how), rest assured I will be using spaces.

 

[nakedfrog]

Tabs are correct.

 

[IronWing]

After composing an email in gmail this morning I once again desire to reach through the internet and pummel with a pomelo the person who decided that the tab key aught to be used to move to the next field instead of, say, oh, I don't know, maybe inserting a tab.

I also want to ram a banana into the gmail developer who designed gmail to break vertical alignment in messages every f'in time. It doesn't matter if one uses spaces or tabs, every time the alignment gets f'ed up.

 

[ultimatebob]

I guess that Bill doesn't do a lot of YAML scripting, which has to be most "tab hostile" scripting language I've ever seen because of it's spacing restrictions.

 

[Anubis]

i dont program i have no idea what this is even in reference to

 

[IronWing]

i dont program i have no idea what this is even in reference to

This
     here
vs
that
    there

except that this here forum changed that there tab to spaces anyway.

Code is easier to read if one indents the innards of loops, if-then statements, routines, and objects.

foreach my $p ('ArcGIS', 'Google Earth', 'Google Maps', 'Topo USA') {
    $radframe->Radiobutton(
        -text     => "$p",
        -variable => \$outtype,
        -relief   => 'flat',
        -value    => $p,
        -command => \&DoNothing
    )->pack(@pl);
}

 

[brianmanahan]

nope, tabs converted to spaces is correct

microsofts coding standards have been a joke ever since they made c# use allman style brace indents instead of K&R

 

[purbeast0]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer spaces over tabs. When I'm typing and coding I want to get shit done as fast as I can. Pressing 1 button vs. pressing 4 buttons is simply more efficient, especially over a period of time.

 

[brianmanahan]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer spaces over tabs. When I'm typing and coding I want to get shit done as fast as I can. Pressing 1 button vs. pressing 4 buttons is simply more efficient, especially over a period of time.

i prefer hitting tab, but i want it to get saved as spaces. luckily intellij does that by default and git can be configured to do the conversion in case someone actually tries to save tabs.

 

[purbeast0]

i prefer hitting tab, but i want it to get saved as spaces. luckily intellij does that by default and git can be configured to do the conversion in case someone actually tries to save tabs.

Then it takes more time to delete 4 spaces than it does to delete 1 tab. Or more time to use arrow keys to navigate. So you're back to wasting time. No thanks.

 

[nakedfrog]

Then it takes more time to delete 4 spaces than it does to delete 1 tab. Or more time to use arrow keys to navigate. So you're back to wasting time. No thanks.

Exactly.

 

[IronWing]

OP, apparently this debates has not been resolved.

 

[brianmanahan]

OP, apparently this debates has not been resolved.

that's because nobody who programs with languages other than from C# and VB, or deploys to linux-based systems, cares what bill gates says

 

[nakedfrog]

I didn't figure he wrote much code these days anyhow.

 

[Chaotic42]

I'd like to use tabs, but virtually every coding style I come across demands four spaces, so that's what I use. The fact that Guido Van Rossum is against tabs is another argument in their favor

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer spaces over tabs. When I'm typing and coding I want to get shit done as fast as I can. Pressing 1 button vs. pressing 4 buttons is simply more efficient, especially over a period of time.

Yep, and while you CAN have editors insert say, 4 spaces at a time when you hit tab, when you later go to edit that document, with say, a different editor, it's going to be all messed up, or if you are on another machine and the setting might be 5 instead of 4 because you or someone else did not remember to make it match, or if you have multiple people working and they all have different settings. Tab is just a single character.

In most editors you can also select a block of code and hit tab to make it all indent at once, or shift tab to de-indent. I use that feature all the time when shifting code around.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer spaces over tabs. When I'm typing and coding I want to get shit done as fast as I can. Pressing 1 button vs. pressing 4 buttons is simply more efficient, especially over a period of time.

Just set whatever editor you use to replace tab with spaces so that anytime you press the tab button, it will type 4 spaces for you.

 

[nakedfrog]

But why not just use a tab instead?

 

[renz20003]

nope, tabs converted to spaces is correct

microsofts coding standards have been a joke ever since they made c# use allman style brace indents instead of K&R

Whoa what do you do for a living?

 

[IronWing]

Whoa what do you do for a living?

Drops tabs and explores space.

 

[Drako]

tabs are never the answer.

 

[rh71]

WhyTF would anyone hit a key more than once when once will do the same thing?

And whyTF would you prefer K&R starting bracket toward the end of the line when it's so much easier/cleaner to read at the beginning of the next line?

 

[Thebobo]

I never got past basic

But

 

[brianmanahan]

Whoa what do you do for a living?

software developer of the java + javascript + groovy persuasion