"It's less portable, since different editors/pagers render a hard tab as varying numbers of spaces, and most editors can have this number altered on a per-user basis too. If you use spaces instead of tabs, you're never relying on a particular editor or pager to have tab width set correctly. Even if you're prepared to configure every editor/pager/platform combination you use, aren't you going to be making life difficult for others who want to read or modify your code?"<p>Nearly every editor I've used allows you to adjust tab size. In my mind, that means tabs allow every user to set the width that they prefer.