Re: [gedit-list] elastic tabstops implemented in gedit

[August Karlstrom <fusionfive comhem se>]

Nick Gravgaard skrev:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I thought some of you might be interested in some work I did recently.
> I came up with an idea I call elastic tabstops which I think goes some
> way towards solving the problems programmers have with indenting and
> aligning code, and I've pached gedit to implement it. I've also
> written a gedit plugin which can convert files between using elastic
> tabstops and using spaces.
>
> For more information, please see http://nickgravgaard.com/elastictabstops/
>
> I'd love to hear any feedback, and really love to see this
> functionality appear in gedit officially or in any other projects.
>
> Tell me what you think,
> Nick

I really don't see any problems with using tabs only for indentation.

Advantages:

1. Everyone can set their preferred tab width in the editor,

2. easier editing and maintained consistency as we insert and delete 
complete indentation steps,

3. smaller source files.

Disadvantage: We can't do fancy formatting such as lining up parameters 
and such. On the other this is not necessarily a disadvantage; if the 
parameter list in your example:

int someDemoCode(int fred, int wilma);

is arranged as

int someDemoCode(
	int fred,
	int wilma);

as opposed to

int someDemoCode(int fred,
                 int wilma);

we only have to edit one line if the function needs to be renamed.

The main point is that making changes to a source file shouldn't require 
a fancy editor or excessive editing of surrounding code.


August