Re: indent-tabs-mode default [was: Representation of the Emacs userbase on emacs-devel]

[Tim Cross]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> I'll just mention this reason that `indent-tabs-mode'
> should be OFF by default "nowadays".  It's a reason
> that wasn't so strong in past years, I think.
>
> With it OFF, code copied from Emacs (vanilla, 3rd-party,
> or just code someone tossed off in *scratch*) and pasted
> into online forums (StackExchange, Reddit,... whatever),
> or emails (not necessarily plain-text), or applications
> won't have its apparent indentation changed.  That's a
> good thing.
>
> I see this gotcha a lot on emacs.StackExchange, for
> instance.  A user copies and pastes some code, and the
> indentation is broken (but maybe not super noticeably),
> because TAB chars are used here & there for indentation.
>
> That means the user (or someone else) needs to then
> notice that apparent change (gotcha), and then edit the
> code to give it reasonable indentation.
>
> Even a user (such as myself) who's aware of the gotcha
> needs to, e.g., use `M-x untabify' before copying, when
> using `emacs -Q'.  Some users don't know `untabify',
> and they end up doing the TAB-at-a-time editing outside
> Emacs, in the paste destination.  That's a shame.
>
> This is a small reason, perhaps.  But it is one more.
> It's an unnecessary bother, IMO.
>
> It's easy enough for some local use (e.g. following the
> standards of some organization) to customize the option
> to ON.  But that should no longer be the default, IMO.

Yes, I would agree. I also find it a much less common setting these
days. The only time I come across the need to use tabs instead of spaces
tends to be with older projects and as you point out, it is simple to
set the default to tabs for those on a per project basis.