this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Most programmers' editors automatically indent the line appropriately without having to hit either the space key or the tab key, and if you do hit the tab key it usually just inserts enough tabs or spaces (whichever you configure it for) to take it in one level of indentation. Programmers depend on hyper smart specialized editors.
Backspace, on the other hand, deletes a single character and not a single level of indentation. Arrow keys, similarly, move by characters and not by levels of indentation. So, there's still a reason to use tabs.
Cool!
I work all day in a large codebase which is entirely space-indented, and I must say the amount of time I've spent backspacing through indented spaces in order to get to the right indentation level, or moving individually through indented space characters with the arrow keys, adds up to less than a minute a month. So while that may be "a reason" to prefer tabs, it isn't much of them, at least, not if you use a good editor. It just doesn't matter.
If you want to understand the issues more thoroughly, internet hero Jamie Zawinski wrote a treatise on it 23 years ago, and not much has changed since then.
https://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html
My observation is that space-using people tend to be like "OK if tabs make you happy, I guess you can do that, I'm going to keep using spaces, which I prefer because of (reason X Y and Z)." And tabs-using people tend to be like I WILL NOW LECTURE YOU ON WHY TABS ARE OBJECTIVELY SUPERIOR AND I WILL NEVER STOP. I CAN'T BE BARGAINED WITH, I CAN'T BE REASONED WITH, I DON'T FEEL PITY OR REMORSE OR FEAR. AND I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT STOP, EVER, UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD.