[Rd] Tabs in R source code

[Peng Yu]

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 10:40 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> On 29/11/2009 10:58 AM, Peng Yu wrote:
>>
>> Some lines are indented by tabs and some lines are indented by spaces,
>> in R source code. This might due to the fact that the source code is
>> not from a single person. But I think that it is better to enforce a
>> single convention.
>>
>> My editor defaults a tab to 8 spaces. So some source doesn't seem to
>> be indented correctly in my editor. Since tab may be displayed
>> differently in different editor, I recommend to replace all the tabs
>> by the appropriate number of spaces to ensure the same indentation
>> display.
>
> The R source code assumes that tabs occur every 8 columns, so if your editor
> is working properly, it should display files as intended.
>
>> Could somebody update the source code in the future version by
>> replacing tabs by spaces and enforce such a coding convention in the
>> future?
>
> No, that would not be feasible, for the reason you give in the second
> sentence of your post.

I don't understand why it is not feasible. The spaces are displayed
the same in all editors. If there are no tabs, the code should display
the same in all editors. I know some languages that are recommended to
have spaces rather than tabs for this reason.