CLAS

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

Erik.Zuurbier@KLM.NL wrote

	> You are probably unaware of the 'Format' item under the 'Edit' menu of the
	> CleanIDE. There you can actually set your tabbing instead of guessing it.

	No! don't tell him that! He will come to Nijmegen and kill you!

That is a libel.  I am the mildest of mortals and since my childhood
have never as much as hit anyone.

	Don't you know Richard hates the Clean IDE

That also is a libel.  I don't hate the Clean IDE, and on the Mac I've
used it quite willingly.  I have criticised the *editor* in the Clean
IDE, but I am sure that its authors will freely admit that it is not
the centre of their research and is severely limited in its capabilities
compared with (X)Emacs or Alpha.

	and prefers
	a particular IDE that won't be told about the tab-length?!
	
That is also untrue.  I don't prefer an IDE at all, *any* IDE.
I prefer powerful programming-oriented editors.  Nor is it true
that the editors I like cannot be told about tab width; they all
can.  The thing is that compilers and editors are not the only
tools I use, and that each tool I use that *can* be told about
tab width (not all of them can) has to be told a *different* way,
which is why no prudent UNIX programmer ever monkeys with tab width.

UNIX programmers reading this list will be aware that the Vi
editor, for example, does NOT use the TAB key for indentation, but
Ctrl-T (and Ctrl-D to undent) and the >> and << commands, and the
indentation width variable is completely separate from the tab
width variable.  Emacs too distinguishes between indentation and
tabs.

I am *not* willing to spend a great deal of effort hacking around
the uncooperative habits of one tool.  I don't have to worry about
tabs with SML or Mercury; why should have have to worry about them
in Clean?

    Clean developers:
	EITHER provide an "Edit|Replace TABs" operation of some sort
	OR provide a platform-independent way to tell the compiler 
          what convention is used in each source file

    Clean library authors:
	When you distribute Clean sources, make sure there are no
	tabs.  It won't hurt *you* and it *will* help others.

I honestly don't understand why there is any argument about this.
Can anyone honestly say that they think using tab characters in a
file BUT requiring them to be treated differently from the way
every other UNIX tool treats them is a *good* thing?