It is SO STUPID that spaces are widely preferred for indentation in code.

For the past, I don’t know, two hours I’ve been trying to fix YAML formatting issues that could have been fixed without any human intervention if only tabs were used. (It’s a big file, hence the duration.) (I know YAML doesn’t support tabs. That’s kind of my point.)

I even reluctantly asked Gemini (forced upon me by work; I was hoping it would change my mind in this case) why anyone would prefer spaces. It said the same irrelevant thing most people say: because some tools don’t support tabs properly.

Know what that sounds like to me? A problem with the fucking tool.

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this, but I can’t think of a better option.

  • neidu4@piefed.socialEnglish
    16·
    12 days ago

    I too prefer tabs. It’s always been that way. It annoys me when an editor tries to be smart with spaces, and insert auto indentation instead of an actual tab character. It annoys me even more when I press the tab key, and the editor interprets that as “I guess that means you want spaces.”.

    I will concede that tabs can be a bit too wide when you end up nesting a bunch of stuff, so I’m fine with them being displayed as a set of spaces, but when I hit tab, I want an actual tab character. Otherwise I would use the spacebar.

    • 0ops@piefed.zipEnglish
      12·
      12 days ago

      Most editors I’ve used let you set a tab width in units of spaces. I prefer tabs at a width of two spaces. That’s the great thing about tabs though, we can all share the same codebase and set the tab width to whatever we each desire

    • anotherandrew@lemmy.mixdown.caEnglish
      71·
      12 days ago

      I will concede that tabs can be a bit too wide when you end up nesting a bunch of stuff

      Nope, that’s a code smell; if your code is veering off into the rhubarb because you’re nesting like crazy then that’s a signal to break up your function. 8 char tabs help you code better.