Re: spaces

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Akim,

* Akim Demaille wrote on Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 09:44:37AM CET:
> Le 10 janv. 09 à 22:25, Ralf Wildenhues a écrit :
>
>> Maybe we should update HACKING about the style we decide about?
>> (note this is really just bike shedding, and babbling)
>
> I definitely think this would be a good idea.
>
> I have worked for years with the same set up as you, using an much TAB  
> as is possible.  But I read someday something that Jim wrote about this 
> topic, in which he was advocating the no-tab approach, and I was  
> convinced.  What changed my viewpoint was that (i) Jim is in favor of  
> it, so it's good :)

Nice reasoning.  ;-)

> and (ii) because he did point out that it makes it 
> really easier to discuss about code in emails.

Good point.

> It is true that I have been disturbed and even annoyed by tab vs.
> space in some patches that gave the impression of improper
> indentation.
>
> Therefore, for a year or so, I am now using spaces only.

But it is not sufficient for Libtool if you are the only one who uses
spaces.  And it is probably not helpful for email readability if new
lines are spaces and old lines are tabs for indentation.

I see Bob also prefers spaces.

Well, changing Libtool over to use spaces only is quite a diff, and not
a trivial one to check, either.  Let alone that it increases ltmain.sh
by more than 10% in size, which will probably even have an impact on
runtime performance.

I don't know what way is best here.  We can draw a poll or so.

> The following patch addresses space issues in libtoolize.  Some are  
> benign, some are really dangerous because they invite some editors to  
> break the code.  I speak from experience: I once broke Autoconf because 
> of <sp><tab> -> <tab> cleanup from my editor :(

I remember such incidents (not sure whether this particular one).

> I really recommend that 
> this patch (or a variation thereof, maybe based on $lt_sp and $lt_tab) be 
> applied, independently from whether the Libtool republic votes for tab or 
> space for presidency, as tracking these issues is uneasy.

Indeed.

> From 425171194b41e6627aae75f18dfa5620e8a8c34d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Akim Demaille <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:05:31 +0100
> Subject: [PATCH] Clean space uses.
> 
>       * libtoolize.m4sh: Remove trailing spaces.
>       Use <tab><sp>, as some editors remove "useless" spaces in
>       <sp><tab>.

This patch is ok, feel free to push.

Thanks,
Ralf