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"Gisle Vanem" <> wrote in message
news:3f27f0e3$...
> I'm a .py newbie and fascinated by the simplicity of formatting.
> No need for {} as in Perl etc. But the misuse of <tab> that many
> .py writers do makes it hard to understand how a script operates.
>
> E.g.
>
> def main():
> terminate = 0
> def foo():
> line = sys.stdin.readline()
> <tab> try:
> bar()
> except:
> terminate = 1
>
> main()
>
> Now, with an editor with different tab-settings it's difficult to see
where
> the try statement belongs. In 'def main()' or in 'def foo()' ?
> I'm confused, please enlighten me.

You're quite right - mixing spaces and tabs when indenting is
not the thing to do. In fact, it's warned against in a number of
places. The recommended practice is to use spaces, and
avoid tabs completely.

I think you'll find that all the modules in the standard library
use spaces exclusively.

John Roth
>
> --gv
>
>

> You're quite right - mixing spaces and tabs when indenting is
> not the thing to do. In fact, it's warned against in a number of
> places. The recommended practice is to use spaces, and
> avoid tabs completely.
>
> I think you'll find that all the modules in the standard library
> use spaces exclusively.
The problem with spaces is that you need to do 5 times the work of a tab
to get decent-looking indentation .

max <> writes:
[...]
> The problem with spaces is that you need to do 5 times the work of a
> tab to get decent-looking indentation .

Get an editor.


John

On Wed, 2003-07-30 at 10:25, max wrote:

> The problem with spaces is that you need to do 5 times the work of a tab
> to get decent-looking indentation .

Or you get a decent editor that inserts 4 spaces when you hit tab and
erases 4 spaces when you hit backspace.

--
Cliff Wells, Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726 (800) 735-0555

"Keith Jones" <> wrote in message news:<>.. .
> On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:25:05 +0000, max wrote:
>
> > The problem with spaces is that you need to do 5 times the work of a tab
> > to get decent-looking indentation .
>
> Not if you have a good editor.. Use vim or emacs. In vim, try :h sts (I
> think, or :h softtabstop) ...it would suck to have to type
> <space><space><space><space> all the time, but you don't.

If you use vim remember to put 'set expandtab' (or if you wanna be
fancy 'au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py set expandtab' ) into your .vimrc
(or .exrc) file. This way you can use '[Ctrl]-[T]' and '[Ctrl]-[D]'
to in- and un-dent in insert mode, as well as '>>' and '<<' in command
mode, without fear of hard tabs being inserted. (Though the way vi(m)
mixes tabs and spaces is consistent enough that you wouldn't usually
get into any trouble with it.)

Asun Friere <> wrote:

>If you use vim remember to put 'set expandtab' (or if you wanna be
>fancy 'au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py set expandtab' ) into your .vimrc
>(or .exrc) file. This way you can use '[Ctrl]-[T]' and '[Ctrl]-[D]'
>to in- and un-dent in insert mode, as well as '>>' and '<<' in command
>mode, without fear of hard tabs being inserted. (Though the way vi(m)
>mixes tabs and spaces is consistent enough that you wouldn't usually
>get into any trouble with it.)

That's handy. I had known about 'set expandtab' for a while, but I
wanted to figure out how to use it for just Python.

And now I don't have to.

Thanks,

James Graves

"Keith Jones" <> wrote in message news:<>.. .
> > If you use vim remember to put 'set expandtab' (or if you wanna be fancy
> > 'au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py set expandtab' ) into your .vimrc (or .exrc)
> > file. This way you can use '[Ctrl]-[T]' and '[Ctrl]-[D]' to in- and
> > un-dent in insert mode, as well as '>>' and '<<' in command mode,
> > without fear of hard tabs being inserted. (Though the way vi(m) mixes
> > tabs and spaces is consistent enough that you wouldn't usually get into
> > any trouble with it.)
>
>
> Oh, yeah, forgot to mention expandtab; I did not know about >>, <<,
> Ctrl+T, and Ctrl+D, however; so thanks for those. I had mapped <tab> and
> <s-tab> to : s/^/ /<cr> and : s/^ /<cr> for command mode, which I
> guess I won't have to use anymore.

[ctrl]-[t] and [ctrl]-[d] also exist in vanilla vi, but are much more
nicely implemented in vim. In vi you have to make sure you are at the
front of the line, or else you indent will be inserted into your line
(which is hardly ever what you would want). In vim it doesn't matter
where in the line your cursor is, the commands will move the line as a
unit, much like your mappings would.

I should perhaps also mention the very useful ex versions of this
command as well. ie '>' for a single indent, '>>' for two indents,
'<<<' for three dedents, etc, which like ex commands generally are
especially useful when you want to move a bunch of lines at a time.

Thanks for that resource file listing, that is going to up a whole new
vista of vim/python usage for me.

(James Graves) wrote in message news:<bgbqmu$ksv$>...

> That's handy. I had known about 'set expandtab' for a while, but I
> wanted to figure out how to use it for just Python.

Note how Keith Jones, in the following post, achieves the same:

au FileType python set et

I wasn't aware of the 'FileType' setting, but it has the advantage of
working with files which vim recognises as python source, but which
don't necessarily end in 'py'. Nice!

Keith Jones <> wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:25:05 +0000, max wrote:
>
>> The problem with spaces is that you need to do 5 times the work of a tab
>> to get decent-looking indentation .
>
> Not if you have a good editor.. Use vim or emacs. In vim, try :h sts (I
> think, or :h softtabstop) ...it would suck to have to type
><space><space><space><space> all the time, but you don't.

Don't forget the "smarttab" option (:h smarttab). My .vimrc looks like:

set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set smarttab

OK, if you want to be precise about it, *part* of my .vimrc looks like
the above.

--
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