Re: indent-tabs-mode

[Nick Roberts]

 > Given that only the most bizarro applications actually care about tabs
 > vs. spaces, it seems better to simply deal with those rare cases
 > individually using modes.

Every application has to decide how it's going to display a tab.  Emacs
uses eight spaces by default but others use a different number.

 > [Actually, what are those applications?  Make treats TAB as significant,
 > but does so in a way that works well with the default settings.]

I've noticed it in diffs where the source has tabs and appears different
e.g in the mail archives.

 > > Actually many commands seem to do this anyway: c-indent-command,
 > > lisp-indent-line, so perhaps I've got the wrong end of the stick
 > > anyway.
 > 
 > Those commands do not do anything special, they simply do what
 > indent-tabs-mode tells them to do; if indent-tabs-mode is t, they will
 > insert tabs.

Since they all seem to insert spaces, I think this either says that nil would
be a sensible default for indent-tabs-mode, or it doesn't really matter.
However Emacs sources have thousands, so somehow they're being inserted.

-- 
Nick                                           http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob