Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!zen.net.uk!dedekind.zen.co.uk!reader02.nrc01.news.zen.net.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Nobody Subject: Re: I hate you all Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2013 14:52:45 +0100 User-Agent: Pan/0.14.2 (This is not a psychotic episode. It's a cleansing moment of clarity.) Message-Id: Newsgroups: comp.lang.python References: <64d4fb7c-6a75-4b5f-b5c8-06a4b2b5d0cb@googlegroups.com> <906d8c05-99dc-4209-854c-7988ca7c78e3@googlegroups.com> <95b2bc1c-57a2-48c9-85ea-cf1004c9e26c@googlegroups.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 21 Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 202cc3a4.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=J1]Dl=Gn=M`4cU[DET 8 characters is common, but no more "correct" than any other, This is pure revisionism. 8-column tabs may never have been a significant /de jure/ standard (although they have been that in many specific domains), but they have been a significant /de facto/ standard for almost as long as computers have existed. Historically, software and hardware which assigns a meaning to a tab character has come in two flavours: 1. Tab stops are every 8 columns; this cannot be changed. 2. Tab stops are configurable, defaulting to every 8 columns. Creating software which, in the absence of both a good reason and an explicit mechanism for communicating the configured value, treats them as configurable is usually a consequence of a "code now, think later" mentality (although there may have be a few cases where it was a deliberate "embrace, extend, extinguish" tactic).