[Tutor] I know you will hate this but...

[Lee Harr]

>>Inconsistent indentation styles are very
>>annoying in
>>other languages, but a fatal problem in Python.
>
>But there is no way to enforce standard settings.  When new versions are
>installed or someone just makes a mistake the settings might change and
>you won't know until it's too late...possibly weeks later.
>


I don't see how.  If you diff between two versions where the indentation
has been modified, you should get a massive diff which shows all of the
changed lines.

If you are using some tool that is hiding whitespace changes somehow,
that is clearly not the tool to be using with python.

I have used both cvs and svn with python and have never seen a problem
like what you describe.

That said, I have had problems importing other people's code in to my
work environment -- usually when the code uses tabs instead of spaces,
or has mixed tabs and spaces. I have my editor set up to use only spaces,
covert tabs to spaces, and use 4 spaces per indent level. If I try to load
code that used another indent style it can make a complete mess.

My opinion is that tabs for indenting should just go away, and the 4-space
indent should be mandatory.

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