[Tutor] Invisible Characters in Fortran/Python

[Tyler Glembo]

Hi All,
So I have a ~3000 line fortran code that needs to be updated to run new
files by simply updating a few lines in the code (~10 lines).  I thought
python would be a great way to do so since I know a little python but not
fortran.  So, my plan was to read in each line, and then at a certain line
number, write out the changed code.  A short snippet is as follows:

dest= open( f1, "w" )
source= open( f2, "r" )
for line in source:
   if X:
      dest.write( newline + "\n" )
   else:
      dest.write( line )
dest.close()
source.close()

The problem I am having is with hidden/invisible character.  In the fortran
code, there are line indents which are denoted with an invisible character
^I.  When I write with python, there is no ^I at the beginning of the line
and the fortran code no longer compiles.  I know how to put in the invisible
line return character (\n), but how can I put in other invisible characters?

Thank you kindly,
Tyler

P.S. In VI when I "set invlist" the hidden character ^I shows up in blue at
the beginning of the line in place of 4 red spaces that are normally there.
I'm assuming it is like a tab indent, but I don't know what it is.
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