[Haskell] Gallopping Tab characters

Matthew Walton matthew at alledora.co.uk
Mon Jan 26 17:13:48 EST 2004


George Russell wrote:
> Simon Marlow wrote:
>  > As for the width of the tab character: tab stops are every 8 columns.
>  > Period.  The Haskell report says so
> 
> Yes, true.  I think it was Leslie Lamport who wrote in TeXHaX that anyone
> defining an input format which includes tabs should be sentenced to ten 
> years
> programming COBOL in Nijny-Novgorod.  Off you go, Simon ... :)

At least that gives the compiler writers a standard to work from. Then 
they can say 'well if you don't consider tabs to be eight columns, then 
it's your fault your code doesn't work'.

Although I'm inclined to agree with Lamport - mostly in the case of 
Makefiles because they're required, but tabs in C++ code drive me up the 
wall, across the ceiling and out the window on the other side.



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