Who are the "spacists"?

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 02:40 am, Tobiah wrote:

>> I wonder whether the tabs versus spaces divide is closely aligned to the
>> Windows versus Unix/Linux divide?
>> 
>> It seems to me that Unix users are typically going to be using Unix tools
>> which often assume spaces are used for indentation, and consequently cope
>> badly with tabs.
> 
> I can't think of any classic Unix tool that behaves in a way that would
> support this point of view.

And yet I'm forever being told by my Linux sys admin work mates "don't use
tabs, because they break everything". For another example, see JMZ's essay
(its already been linked to twice in this thread, look it up).

We've had a similar attitude right here from Marko, who insists that
anything except 8-column tabs is the Devil's Work. (Or something like
that -- to be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure I understand *what*
Marko's objection is.)

So okay, if tabs work fine with Unix tools, why do so many Unix people avoid
tabs as if they were radioactive plague?




-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.