Re: On Tabs and Spaces

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>]

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007, Tom Tobin wrote:
> 
> Or is "unix developers" code for "my sample size of one"?

Well, let's put it this way: that "sample" is the one that started the 
project.

I got to pick the license. Are you going to argue about that too? I got to 
pick the way I wrote the code. Are you going to continue arguing about 
that?

The fact is, I don't see the people arguing for spaces having actually 
*done* anything for git. So why are you arguing?

> Interesting how you waver between "certain developers" and "me".  I'm
> convinced at this point that your argument comes down to "I can't use my
> favorite text editor with all-spaces, therefore all-spaces sucks".

Umm. And I've *told* you that.

The whole point is:
 - every single damn editor out there can handle tabs.
 - it's the default
 - end of story.

What's so hard to understand? 

> As for *disk space*?  When we can measure cheap drives in sizable
> fractions of *terabytes*, this simply isn't a serious argument.

That disk-space translates into memory usage too, and into just being 
technically the *inferior* choice.

How hard is that to accept? If you have a choice between a technically 
better solution, and a technically worse one, why are you arguing for the 
worse one?

> Yeah, can you believe some projects actually *survive* with an
> all-spaces indentation rule?  And ::gasp:: even *thrive*?

Hey, Ḯ'm not saying that others shouldn't use spaces. I'm saying that 
*git* should not, the same way the Linux kernel does not and will not.

Why? Because tabs are better. You (or anybody else) have simply never 
given any argument against that very simple argument. You try to push an 
inferior solution.

> Problems have been outlined, but since everything for you comes down to
> "anything that comes between me and microemacs sucks", rational
> discussion breaks down.

Don't talk about "rational discussion", since you don't even *have* any.

The starting point for any rational decision would be to explain why 
changing tabs to spaces would actually improve anything at all. And you 
have yet to show *any* such argument, while I've shown arguments to the 
reverse.

One big one being: the person who started the project and still actually 
*does* something for it actually cares.

In contrast, your argument seems to be "I've not actually done anything, 
but I want to paint the bikeshed pink".

		Linus