Tabs, spaces and your salary – how is it really?
= Why Grown-Ups Don&#x27;t Use Tabs[1] =<p>* Joe likes 4-space tabs, I like 2-space tabs, and Jane is old-school with 8-space tabs.<p>* All goes well until someone aligns something visually, like so:<p><pre><code>    [tab]void someNiceMethod(int myParamA,
    [tab][tab][tab][tab][space][space]int myParamB...);
</code></pre>
(What you <i>should</i> do--if you&#x27;re going to visually align at all--of course, is<p><pre><code>    [tab]void someNiceMethod(int myParamA,
    [tab]                    int myParamB...);
</code></pre>
... but humans are humans and IDEs aren&#x27;t created equal, so this doesn&#x27;t happen consistently.)<p>* Now it aligns perfectly on my machine, looks mostly ok on Joe&#x27;s machine, and is ON MARS on Jane&#x27;s machine.<p>Thus one-or-more of three futures happens:<p>* Someone implements a code re-formatter into version control<p>* Someone re-aligns the code, starting the process over again.<p>* Someone calls a meeting and demands we all switch to spaces AND IDEs that let you treat spaces like tabs.<p>[1]: This came up last week (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14560042" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14560042</a>) and this comment is shamelessly copied from that discussion (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14561223" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14561223</a>).