On Sep 14, 2009, at 4:33 AM, Olin Lathrop wrote:

>> I'm a big proponent of tabs (it hurts my sense of frugality to use 8
>> spaces where one tab would do (yes, even in this day and age when  
>> text
>> file size is largely irrelevant.))
>
> That's really silly, but it seems you know that.  Put the dead fish  
> down and
> use logic instead of superstition.
>
> Let's put this in perspective.  Let's say you've written 1 MLines of  
> code,
> and every one of them wasted 7 characters.  That's a whole whopping  
> 7Mb.

Except for ASM code there is typically one tab before the opcode, one  
tab after, and then several tabs between the arguments and the comment  
(in column 48 or so.)  So using spaces instead of tabs probably adds  
20+ characters per line, probably close to doubling the size of the  
program.

In general, the whole argument is silly.  Any reasonable editor can be  
set up to properly handle any of the possibilities.  It's only in the  
communication to large groups that there is a problem (and there I  
agree that it behooves the asker of questions to take any extra steps  
to make their code readable by others (or to put up with whatever  
others give him.))

BillW

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