Indentation (4 spaces vs 8 spaces)

Indentation (4 spaces vs 8 spaces)

decepto

Member #7,102

April 2006

A couple questions:

1. Do you use hard tabs or soft spaces for indentation - and why?
2. How many spaces do you indent in? 4, 8 or (gasp!) 2?

Personally, I use soft spaces with an indent of 4 for every programming language. Trying to use 8 space indentation is just too hard when I try to keep my lines less than 80 characters.

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Sol Blast

Member #9,655

April 2008

I prefer the uniformity you get with the tab key (so in other words 4 in MVS6).

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ITAmember

Member #10,095

August 2008

I use soft indentation and 4 spaces because I'm a big python programmer and that is the python standard. But that's just me.

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Jeff Bernard

Member #6,698

December 2005

I typically use hard tabs. But if I ever use soft spacing (such as when formatting code for a forum), I use 3 spaces.

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CosmicR

Member #6,889

February 2006

I use whatever the source code formatter does in code::blocks. I think it's the K & R standard.
Previously before I had the formatter I used spaces, often only 2 because sometimes lines got too long when I used descriptive variable names.

OnlineCop

Member #7,919

October 2006

I use tabs to indent, and spaces to align.

My IDE usually have the tab/indentation level set to 3, since it's not as space-wasting as 4, and easier to read than 2.

Although people who use tabs to indent also use tabs to align, I think it's a pain to visually match everything in their sources by either changing my IDE's tab/indentation level to match theirs or (in the extreme case) reformat their code to make everything align correctly.

--|--|std::cout << "Text that is so long that it needs to break across lines "
--|--|          << "have the tabs set the same as the line above, and then hit "
--|--|          << "SPACE until the <<'s are aligned visually.";

Now, whether I choose to have my tabs/indentation set at 3,4,8, or some other value, everything shifts by the same proportions and no reindentation is needed.

MiquelFire

Member #3,110

January 2003

I use tabs. Mainly so that if I edit the file in an editor that doesn't use Shift+Tab to deindent (or doesn't auto indent) I have less keys to type.

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CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Iusetabsbecausemykeyboarddoesn'thaveaspacebar.

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Edgar Reynaldo

Major Reynaldo

May 2007

I use the tab key to put in spaces up to the next tab stop using Code Blocks. 3 space indentation is just about perfect. Not too much extra space on the left with large indentation levels, and enough space to see at a quick glance which blocks are where.

I can't stand actual tabs though, because Code Blocks insists on displaying them as arrows, which makes any code with actual tabs in it look awful, at which point I immediately replace them with spaces. I may put in a request on the Code Blocks forums to have them allow invisible tabs as an option one of these days.

What bugs me the most is when people use an 8 space tab with a different indentation level, so there's one tab and a space to meet up with the 3rd 3 space indentation.

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SiegeLord

Member #7,827

October 2006

Quote:

I can't stand actual tabs though, because Code Blocks insists on displaying them as arrows

Huh? Why don't you set the Settings->Editor->General Settings->Indent Options->Show Spaces to 'No'?

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Edgar Reynaldo

Major Reynaldo

May 2007

Quote:

Huh? Why don't you set the Settings->Editor->General Settings->Indent Options->Show Spaces to 'No'?

Yikes! That made my code all floaty! I like having the dots indicate the spaces, but not the arrows indicating tabs. And besides, I didn't think that turning 'Show Spaces' off would turn off the tab characters as well. I learned something new. Thanks.

Evert

Member #794

November 2000

Soft tabs (in other words, tab inserts spaces), with a tabsize of 3.

SiegeLord

Member #7,827

October 2006

Quote:

I like having the dots indicate the spaces, but not the arrows indicating tabs

Yeah, I guess they could have picked something less visually striking than an arrow... heh.

As for the OP: I use tabs (tab size 4), because I like them. Also, makes keyboard navigation easier for me. I've yet to see an editor that will respect indentation when moving using the arrow keys unless you use tabs.

"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow."-Ecclesiastes 1:18
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Mokkan

Member #4,355

February 2004

I use four spaces, no tabs. I can't stand tabs.

someone972

Member #7,719

August 2006

I use four soft spaces. This is either done by CB when I press tab or when I do it myself. I'm not sure which one I use more because I haven't been paying attention.

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Neil Black

Member #7,867

October 2006

I use whatever the environment I'm in defaults to, because I'm too lazy to go in a change a setting that looks and works fine by default. I've used Dev-Cpp for years and I'm still not sure what the default setting is.

If I had to pick a setting I'd go with four spaces.

Timorg

Member #2,028

March 2002

In Code::Blocks I used to use 4 spaces with a tab, and save them as a tab character, but I reinstalled at some point and forgot to change the setting. So I use 4 spaces, but use two for case labels and public/private/protected in classes.

Eg.

1class USELESS
2{
public:
  void funct(int a)
  {
      switch (a)
      {
        case 1:
          printf("the number was one\n");
          break;
        case 2:
          printf("the number was two\n");
          break;
        default:
          printf("the number wasn't one or two\n");
          break;
      }
  }
19};

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Trezker

Member #1,739

December 2001

I prefer tabs. But if I have to use spaces, 2 is enough.

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bamccaig

Member #7,536

July 2006

I use tabs to indent, but spaces to align (i.e., multiline statements that don't line up with tabs). My tab size is always 4. I find tabs more easy to work with, but spaces are needed to align continued lines where tabs don't necessarily line up perfectly. I find 4 spaces to be the most comfortable size.

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