• Kissaki@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    I consider tabs for indentation a failed concept.

    The idea is good, but it evidently failed. Most guidelines and newer Tools recommend or require or use spaces for indent. They have their reasons too.

    The prevalence of spaces makes it hard to make a contrary argument for tabs. By now, I don’t think it’s worth even if it had reasonable advantages.

    Editors/IDEs that parse syntax can adjust space indent too. A mixture for indent and alignment is not obvious for everyone (I always display whitespace in my editors and am deliberate and consistent, but many people and editor defaults won’t be). Some defaults of four or eight space-width tab display is atrociously wasteful and inaccessible.

    Spaces are a good enough baseline. It works well enough. And most importantly it works consistently. That’s why it won in prevalence and use.

    • xep@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If I could only get everyone who works on the thing I work on to use a whitespace visualizer, it would be enough. We can fight about tabs or spaces after we get rid of all the unnecessary trailing ones.

      • Kissaki@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Do you have actual experience with it?

        Some time ago I read a comment from someone with impaired eyesight who used an editor that would adjust space indent just fine.

        Accessibility is a thing I always consider.

          • Kissaki@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            I would have preferred tabs to win for this reason.

            Unfortunately, as you pointed out, “good enough” can be excluding, non-inclusive. Overall it works well enough for enough people / none with impairment stumbled over it yet, did not voice or were not heard.

            the majority of healthy people has no problem marginalizing minorities with disabilities

            I wouldn’t attribute malice like this though. Most people just don’t care or are not mindful and thorough.