untabifying and local-variable for Emacs

[John W. Eaton]

Some time ago, we discussed removing Emacs local-variable blocks and
indenting source files with spaces only (no TAB characters).  At the
time, I think we decided that it was not worth doing, in part because
it would make transplanting patches difficult.  But now it seems that
we are unlikely to have another 3.2.x release after the one that is in
progress, so now seems as good a time as any, so I started making
these changes.

I've removed all the local-variables blocks from the C/C++ source
files.  These changes should not cause problems with diffs because
they are unlikely to overlap with real changes to the code.

I've also started untabifying the C/C++ source files.  Everything
except the src and liboctave directories should be converted now.
Most of the files I converted are things that don't change often, so I
don't think there will be many conflicts.  But the files in the src
and liboctave directories are more likely to change, so I thought it
would be best to ask whether anyone is working on any large-scale
changes that would be affected by changes to whitespace.  If so, then
I can wait.  Otherwise, I'd like to go ahead with the conversion.

What about the .m files?  I'd also like to remove TAB characters from
those files.  Is anyone working on large changes to the .m files?

I do expect these changes will cause some small trouble, but in the
long term I think it will be better if we are only indenting with
spaces.

Also, if necessary, I think it should be possible to apply a patch
that is relative to the pre-conversion sources, by doing the
following, given a copy of the sources that have not had TAB
characters converted to spaces:

  make two copies of the sources
  untabify the to-be-modified files in one copy
  apply the patch to the other copy of the sources
  untabify the modified files in the patched copy
  generate a new patch

But I'd rather not have to do that very often.

Comments or suggestions?

jwe