Re: M-\ does not work with prefix argument as documented

[Dieter Wilhelm]

Kevin Rodgers <address@hidden> writes:

> Dieter Wilhelm wrote:
>> By the way, what is confusing to me is the fact that the diff output
>> does not reflect the indentation of the code correctly.  Please have a
>> look at the progn command, in the code the lines below progn are
>> indented with 2 additional spaces.
>
> Such visual distortions arise due to tabs in the code, which is the
> default (see indent-tabs-mode).  Each line of the diff output starts
> with 2 additional characters (<, >, +, -, or !, then a space); that may
> or may not result in the subsequent printable characters being displayed
> 2 columns to the right, depending on whether any intervening tabs get
> pushed past the next (8-column) tab stop.

Thank you, I always thought that the following would be Emacs' policy
to be as portable as possible:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

> I know it's disconcerting, but you just have to learn to ignore it.

First of all, it's not *so* disconcerting and even less so when one
knows why it happens.  But you are sounding somewhat fatalistic in
your last sentence, aren't you?  This make me wonder, whether setting
the default of indent-tabs-mode to nil is really a panacea.

-- 
    Best wishes

    H. Dieter Wilhelm
    Darmstadt, Germany