Re: Whitespace cleanup

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 23 August 2012 09:16, Juanma Barranquero <address@hidden> wrote:
> And even if the option existed, why bother? What's the problem you
> want to fix? Do you see misalignment with tab-width = 8 in the current
> sources?

On 23 August 2012 09:23, Dan Nicolaescu <address@hidden> wrote:
> If you use (a new enough) emacs to edit emacs sources tab-width is set
> to 8 automatically.  So no problem here.

If tab-width has to be 8 for Emacs sources to properly align because
they mix tabs and spaces, then can we require every Emacs file to set
this local variable? If I change my tab width, I have to remember "oh,
change it back to 8, I'm looking at Emacs source code now". I know the
tarball has a .dir-locals.el that does this, but this file isn't
always present with the corresponding file you're editing. The Emacs
source isn't always in its original tree.

Also, what's the point of even using tabs if you require a pre-defined
tab-width to properly read the sources?

Futhermore, I find Emacs's default behaviour odd, if I understand it
correctly:

    * The indentation offset and the tab width are independent
      variables.

    * When the indentation or alignment level exceeds the tab width,
      both measured in spaces, start using as many tabs as possible.

    * Otherwise, indent or align with spaces.

Why do this at all? Why use tabs like this? The only purpose this
seems to serve in my eyes is to mess up the alignment if someone for
whatever reason decides to change tab-width.

On 23 August 2012 09:16, Juanma Barranquero <address@hidden> wrote:
> Also, as I said, this issue has been discussed before. Did you read
> it?

I read the one message I was linked to, but I didn't read the others.
Are my concerns above already addressed in another message?

- Jordi G. H.