If boundaries exist they need to be clear. One shouldn't have to count the tabs that make up the level of indentation.
Its already a challenge reading code. Counting invisible tabs makes it even worse.
def foo(bar)\
:
if (bar > 5)\
:
return bar + 1;
#
else\
:
return bar - 1;
#
#Similarly, copying code from StackOverflow, Github and random blogs have all worked without any issues.
So it can't be as easy as you imply.
Mixed spaces and tabs as a next go, and it worked too---converting the pasted tabs into spaces of my style.
Smart-tabbing is pretty smart.
Granted, I knew that so long as the indents were proper (i.e it compiles), that pasting at that point would give valid code but... I can't see how using braces would have been different. Just because it compiles, doesn't mean it works. I've pasted javascript incorrectly multiple time to produce valid, but incorrect for my needs code.
The indentation strategy also looks to produce syntactically valid code, so long as what you are pasting lacked indentation errors.
When I write Python I end every block with a "pass" statement so that emacs can auto-indent my code properly. The "pass" statement thus effectively becomes a close-brace. It drives Pythonistas into conniptions, but I never have to worry about reverse-engineering a block of code to figure out how to restore the proper block boundaries after a cut-and-paste has screwed up the indentation.