Re:Ask HN: When you code, do you use tabs or spaces?
by nmc on Thursday December 19, 2013 @07:52AM
(#6934339)
1. I strongly prefer tabs, mostly because a lot easier to count than spaces, and because I do not like ambiguity (see 2).
2. I think both are correct. Arguably, tab is the indentation character whereas space is the separator character; but languages are human-defined, so I do not mind if people choose spaces over tabs.
3. Never seen company-wide coding guidelines. I have seen project-wide guidelines, which I think makes perfect sense. I believe mixing tabs and spaces for indentation in a single project, let alone in a single file, is extremely bad practice.
EDIT: as an explanation, this is because I regard tabs as individual characters; I believe the real problem is that IDEs will insert 4 (or sometimes 8) spaces when you type a tab.
2. I think both are correct. Arguably, tab is the indentation character whereas space is the separator character; but languages are human-defined, so I do not mind if people choose spaces over tabs.
3. Never seen company-wide coding guidelines. I have seen project-wide guidelines, which I think makes perfect sense. I believe mixing tabs and spaces for indentation in a single project, let alone in a single file, is extremely bad practice.
EDIT: as an explanation, this is because I regard tabs as individual characters; I believe the real problem is that IDEs will insert 4 (or sometimes 8) spaces when you type a tab.