this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2025
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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 28 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Is a tab four spaces or two?

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A tab is not made of spaces, it goes to the next tab stop, which is as big as you set it to be.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This isn't your argument, neighbor.

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I'll just wish you good day then.

[–] m_f@discuss.online 17 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Let's all compromise on three spaces

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 15 points 5 months ago

recordscratch.wav

[–] echindod@programming.dev 8 points 5 months ago

Ouch. This hurts. This hurts so much.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 months ago

Can we make it π spaces? It's such a nice number.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Neither, it's an actual tab character

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

This is the correct answer. Also it's going to depend on whether your environment (i.e. is it an actual word processor vs. a text editor?) allows for margins and tabs to be set.

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)
[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 9 points 5 months ago

Hi, it's your friendly nano user here to remind you that it's actually 8.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

No it's not!

Wait...

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Behold: HUML, a markup language so opinionated that it forces its users to use an indentation of exactly 2 spaces https://huml.io/specifications/v0-1-0/#indentation

Honestly I like the rest of the specification and being opinionated definitely has its advantages, but I hate using 2 spaces for indentation. Maybe the people who were using tabs for indentation were actually on to something ...

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

IDEs are for script kiddies, real programmers use vim.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nah, real programmers use echo, cat, and pipes

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nah, real programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 months ago

Vim is ok, useful when you don't have an ide handy, but making a complex multiplatform distributed system across multiple teams and repos in such a limited application is just bonkers. Downright lunacy.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago

Hot take: it depends on the language.

  • Markup? 2 spaces
  • Procedural? 4 spaces
  • Natural? 8 spaces