Re: indentation

[Martin Landa]

I vote for 4-spaces.

Martin

2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:

> What do you think? 4 spaces (takes up less room) or 8 (I guess it is some
> kind of standard).
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 4/30/07 8:09 AM, "Martin Landa" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > yes, I am only following default settings of python-menu in GNU Emacs;-)
> >
> > 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
> >> Here is where I got the 8 spaces.
> >>
> >> Michael
> >> __________________________________________
> >> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> >> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> >> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
> >> Arizona State University
> >>
> >> phone: [phone]
> >> fax: [phone]
> >> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> >>
> >>
> >> ------ Forwarded Message
> >>> From: Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
> >>> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:41:55 +0100
> >>> To: Michael Barton <[hidden email]>
> >>> Cc: Martin Landa <[hidden email]>, grass-gui <[hidden email]>
> >>> Subject: Re: [GRASSGUI] Re: a couple of questions
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Michael Barton wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>>>  One thing that I notice is that when we both work on a file, we
> >>>>>> apparently
> >>>>>> have different ways of indenting. This produces errors if not consistent
> >>>>>> within a method or sometimes within a class. To get in sync, I was
> >>>>>> wondering
> >>>>>> how you do indents‹spaces or tabs? If spaces, how many? Glynn Clements
> >>>>>> recommended tabs and a common indent distance of 4 spaces.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> yes, it must be synchronized. Hm, I am using default python-mode in
> >>>>> Emacs 21.3.1. On my laptop Emacs 22.x.
> >>>>
> >>>> I'm using default python-mode tabs in Eclipse. It may be a thing of using
> >>>> tabs or spaces. I can turn all my tabs to spaces. But a recent post from
> >>>> Glynn suggested that tabs were preferable (for some reason I don't
> >>>> remember).
> >>>
> >>> Hmm; I don't recall that.
> >>>
> >>> Spaces are more robust, as there's no ambiguity as to how many columns
> >>> a space occupies. With tabs, there's always the problem of people
> >>> thinking that tab width is a preference, and then their code isn't
> >>> indented correctly (and, in Python, that means that it doesn't work).
> >>>
> >>> If everyone always, without exception, used tabs for indentation, then
> >>> you could change your editor's tab width with no adverse consequences.
> >>>
> >>> Unfortunately, that's a pretty big "if"; in my experience, any
> >>> approach which relies upon the concept of "without exception" is
> >>> essentially doomed.
> >>>
> >>> Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you use so long as your editor's
> >>> tab width is 8 columns. If it's something else, then you *must* use
> >>> spaces.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
> >>
> >> ------ End of Forwarded Message
> >>
> >>
> >
>
> __________________________________________
> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
> Arizona State University
>
> phone: [phone]
> fax: [phone]
> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>
>
>

--
Martin Landa <[hidden email]> * http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz/~landa *

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[Michael Barton]

OK by me.

Michael


On 4/30/07 8:52 AM, "Martin Landa" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I vote for 4-spaces.
>
> Martin
>
> 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
>> What do you think? 4 spaces (takes up less room) or 8 (I guess it is some
>> kind of standard).
>>
>> Michael
>>
>>
>> On 4/30/07 8:09 AM, "Martin Landa" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>>> yes, I am only following default settings of python-menu in GNU Emacs;-)
>>>
>>> 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
>>>> Here is where I got the 8 spaces.
>>>>
>>>> Michael
>>>> __________________________________________
>>>> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
>>>> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>>>> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>>>> Arizona State University
>>>>
>>>> phone: [phone]
>>>> fax: [phone]
>>>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------ Forwarded Message
>>>>> From: Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
>>>>> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:41:55 +0100
>>>>> To: Michael Barton <[hidden email]>
>>>>> Cc: Martin Landa <[hidden email]>, grass-gui
>>>>> <[hidden email]>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [GRASSGUI] Re: a couple of questions
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Michael Barton wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>>>  One thing that I notice is that when we both work on a file, we
>>>>>>>> apparently
>>>>>>>> have different ways of indenting. This produces errors if not
>>>>>>>> consistent
>>>>>>>> within a method or sometimes within a class. To get in sync, I was
>>>>>>>> wondering
>>>>>>>> how you do indents‹spaces or tabs? If spaces, how many? Glynn Clements
>>>>>>>> recommended tabs and a common indent distance of 4 spaces.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> yes, it must be synchronized. Hm, I am using default python-mode in
>>>>>>> Emacs 21.3.1. On my laptop Emacs 22.x.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm using default python-mode tabs in Eclipse. It may be a thing of using
>>>>>> tabs or spaces. I can turn all my tabs to spaces. But a recent post from
>>>>>> Glynn suggested that tabs were preferable (for some reason I don't
>>>>>> remember).
>>>>>
>>>>> Hmm; I don't recall that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Spaces are more robust, as there's no ambiguity as to how many columns
>>>>> a space occupies. With tabs, there's always the problem of people
>>>>> thinking that tab width is a preference, and then their code isn't
>>>>> indented correctly (and, in Python, that means that it doesn't work).
>>>>>
>>>>> If everyone always, without exception, used tabs for indentation, then
>>>>> you could change your editor's tab width with no adverse consequences.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately, that's a pretty big "if"; in my experience, any
>>>>> approach which relies upon the concept of "without exception" is
>>>>> essentially doomed.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you use so long as your editor's
>>>>> tab width is 8 columns. If it's something else, then you *must* use
>>>>> spaces.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
>>>>
>>>> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> __________________________________________
>> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
>> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>> Arizona State University
>>
>> phone: [phone]
>> fax: [phone]
>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>
>>
>>
>

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton



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[Brad Douglas]

I think it would be beneficial to keep the same coding style used in C
modules, where applicable.  Tab of 4 is consistent.

8-space tab is more traditional in the Linux kernel and many other
projects, but GRASS seemed to adopt 4-space tab early-on.  Linus'
8-space tab argument is that if you go past 80 chars with indentation +
code (usually two tab indentations), it should be a separate function.

As Glynn mentioned, if we used '\t' instead of spaces, then the tab size
is rather moot as it is configurable in your favorite editor.  I tend to
shy away from this method and use spaces directly (configured tab to
convert to spaces in editor).

PS -
I've been away for a few weeks and am slowly catching up. :)

On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 17:52 +0200, Martin Landa wrote:

> I vote for 4-spaces.
>
> Martin
>
> 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
> > What do you think? 4 spaces (takes up less room) or 8 (I guess it is some
> > kind of standard).
> >
> > Michael
> >
> >
> > On 4/30/07 8:09 AM, "Martin Landa" <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> > > yes, I am only following default settings of python-menu in GNU Emacs;-)
> > >
> > > 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
> > >> Here is where I got the 8 spaces.
> > >>
> > >> Michael
> > >> __________________________________________
> > >> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> > >> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> > >> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
> > >> Arizona State University
> > >>
> > >> phone: [phone]
> > >> fax: [phone]
> > >> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> ------ Forwarded Message
> > >>> From: Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
> > >>> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:41:55 +0100
> > >>> To: Michael Barton <[hidden email]>
> > >>> Cc: Martin Landa <[hidden email]>, grass-gui <[hidden email]>
> > >>> Subject: Re: [GRASSGUI] Re: a couple of questions
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Michael Barton wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>>>>  One thing that I notice is that when we both work on a file, we
> > >>>>>> apparently
> > >>>>>> have different ways of indenting. This produces errors if not consistent
> > >>>>>> within a method or sometimes within a class. To get in sync, I was
> > >>>>>> wondering
> > >>>>>> how you do indents‹spaces or tabs? If spaces, how many? Glynn Clements
> > >>>>>> recommended tabs and a common indent distance of 4 spaces.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> yes, it must be synchronized. Hm, I am using default python-mode in
> > >>>>> Emacs 21.3.1. On my laptop Emacs 22.x.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I'm using default python-mode tabs in Eclipse. It may be a thing of using
> > >>>> tabs or spaces. I can turn all my tabs to spaces. But a recent post from
> > >>>> Glynn suggested that tabs were preferable (for some reason I don't
> > >>>> remember).
> > >>>
> > >>> Hmm; I don't recall that.
> > >>>
> > >>> Spaces are more robust, as there's no ambiguity as to how many columns
> > >>> a space occupies. With tabs, there's always the problem of people
> > >>> thinking that tab width is a preference, and then their code isn't
> > >>> indented correctly (and, in Python, that means that it doesn't work).
> > >>>
> > >>> If everyone always, without exception, used tabs for indentation, then
> > >>> you could change your editor's tab width with no adverse consequences.
> > >>>
> > >>> Unfortunately, that's a pretty big "if"; in my experience, any
> > >>> approach which relies upon the concept of "without exception" is
> > >>> essentially doomed.
> > >>>
> > >>> Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you use so long as your editor's
> > >>> tab width is 8 columns. If it's something else, then you *must* use
> > >>> spaces.

--
Brad Douglas <rez touchofmadness com>                    KB8UYR/6
Address: 37.493,-121.924 / WGS84    National Map Corps #TNMC-3785

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[Michael Barton]

Thanks for the informative reply. As one intrigued by the past, I always
appreciate and enjoy understanding the history of things like this.

Michael


On 4/30/07 2:54 PM, "Brad Douglas" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I think it would be beneficial to keep the same coding style used in C
> modules, where applicable.  Tab of 4 is consistent.
>
> 8-space tab is more traditional in the Linux kernel and many other
> projects, but GRASS seemed to adopt 4-space tab early-on.  Linus'
> 8-space tab argument is that if you go past 80 chars with indentation +
> code (usually two tab indentations), it should be a separate function.
>
> As Glynn mentioned, if we used '\t' instead of spaces, then the tab size
> is rather moot as it is configurable in your favorite editor.  I tend to
> shy away from this method and use spaces directly (configured tab to
> convert to spaces in editor).
>
> PS -
> I've been away for a few weeks and am slowly catching up. :)
>
> On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 17:52 +0200, Martin Landa wrote:
>> I vote for 4-spaces.
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
>>> What do you think? 4 spaces (takes up less room) or 8 (I guess it is some
>>> kind of standard).
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>> On 4/30/07 8:09 AM, "Martin Landa" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> yes, I am only following default settings of python-menu in GNU Emacs;-)
>>>>
>>>> 2007/4/30, Michael Barton <[hidden email]>:
>>>>> Here is where I got the 8 spaces.
>>>>>
>>>>> Michael
>>>>> __________________________________________
>>>>> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
>>>>> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>>>>> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>>>>> Arizona State University
>>>>>
>>>>> phone: [phone]
>>>>> fax: [phone]
>>>>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------ Forwarded Message
>>>>>> From: Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>
>>>>>> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:41:55 +0100
>>>>>> To: Michael Barton <[hidden email]>
>>>>>> Cc: Martin Landa <[hidden email]>, grass-gui
>>>>>> <[hidden email]>
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [GRASSGUI] Re: a couple of questions
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Michael Barton wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>  One thing that I notice is that when we both work on a file, we
>>>>>>>>> apparently
>>>>>>>>> have different ways of indenting. This produces errors if not
>>>>>>>>> consistent
>>>>>>>>> within a method or sometimes within a class. To get in sync, I was
>>>>>>>>> wondering
>>>>>>>>> how you do indents‹spaces or tabs? If spaces, how many? Glynn Clements
>>>>>>>>> recommended tabs and a common indent distance of 4 spaces.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> yes, it must be synchronized. Hm, I am using default python-mode in
>>>>>>>> Emacs 21.3.1. On my laptop Emacs 22.x.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm using default python-mode tabs in Eclipse. It may be a thing of
>>>>>>> using
>>>>>>> tabs or spaces. I can turn all my tabs to spaces. But a recent post from
>>>>>>> Glynn suggested that tabs were preferable (for some reason I don't
>>>>>>> remember).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hmm; I don't recall that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Spaces are more robust, as there's no ambiguity as to how many columns
>>>>>> a space occupies. With tabs, there's always the problem of people
>>>>>> thinking that tab width is a preference, and then their code isn't
>>>>>> indented correctly (and, in Python, that means that it doesn't work).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If everyone always, without exception, used tabs for indentation, then
>>>>>> you could change your editor's tab width with no adverse consequences.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Unfortunately, that's a pretty big "if"; in my experience, any
>>>>>> approach which relies upon the concept of "without exception" is
>>>>>> essentially doomed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you use so long as your editor's
>>>>>> tab width is 8 columns. If it's something else, then you *must* use
>>>>>> spaces.
>

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton 


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grassgui mailing list
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[Glynn Clements]

Brad Douglas wrote:

> I think it would be beneficial to keep the same coding style used in C
> modules, where applicable.  Tab of 4 is consistent.
>
> 8-space tab is more traditional in the Linux kernel and many other
> projects, but GRASS seemed to adopt 4-space tab early-on.  Linus'
> 8-space tab argument is that if you go past 80 chars with indentation +
> code (usually two tab indentations), it should be a separate function.

I think that you are confusing the tab width with the indentation
step. A 4-column indentation step is reasonable; 4-column tab stops
aren't.

> As Glynn mentioned, if we used '\t' instead of spaces, then the tab size
> is rather moot as it is configurable in your favorite editor.

However, it isn't configurable in Python; tabs stops are always 8
columns apart, in the sense that a line which begins with a tab is
deemed to have the same indentation as one which begins with 8 spaces.

If you only ever use tabs, then the width of tab doesn't actually
matter. But relying upon no-one ever using spaces for indentation is
fragile.

IOW, while you can configure your editor to treat a tab as something
other than 8 spaces, you can't configure everyone else's editors, and
you can't configure Python.

Indentation step is a stylistic choice; tab width is a protocol
variation (ASCII with 4-column tabs is a different protocol to ASCII
with 8-column tabs). Any form of communication requires that both ends
use the same protocol.

--
Glynn Clements <[hidden email]>

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