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Hello fellow Computer Scientists/Programmers!
I was curious about the indenting style most people use. I have used 4 spaces for a long time, because I like how clear it makes things. If lines start to get too long with 4 spaces, I feel like you have bigger concerns than your indentation width  .
Recently I started programming in Erlang using code written by another developer as an example. I noticed he liked to code with 2 spaces, which I don't think is enough personally. How much do you guys indent?
Poll: How many spaces do you indent?4 (50) 59% 2 (20) 24% 5 (5) 6% 3 (4) 5% 1 (3) 4% 8 (2) 2% 7 (1) 1% 6 (0) 0% 85 total votes Your vote: How many spaces do you indent? (Vote): 1
(Vote): 2
(Vote): 3
(Vote): 4
(Vote): 5
(Vote): 6
(Vote): 7
(Vote): 8
EDIT AND WARNING: I would hope most of you would know this, but do NOT use tabs unless you make sure that whatever editor you are using converts them into spaces first. Tabs are not good to use...
 
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I use tabs 
Or 4.
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4 spaces is the standard I think. I highly recommend it.
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I use 4. I started this way and now I don't even consider it. I you dislike someone's style of indentation why not configure your IDE to convert them on pull and reconvert on commit?
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I thought everyone used the tab key. I use the tab key. In what case would not be using the tab key be appropriate and/or better?
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On August 31 2011 03:58 myzael wrote:
I use 4. I started this way and now I don't even consider it. I you dislike someone's style of indentation why not configure your IDE to convert them on pull and reconvert on commit?
Because it doesn't bother me that much and I'm not using an IDE. I'm on linux using gedit  .
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I use 4, it's N++'s default and it works best with Python imo. I do use tabs actually, never really had any problems with that (Notepad++ automatically tab-indents with Python).
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In most editors, I set tab to 4 spaces. In Notepad2 I use 2 spaces for web-oriented languages.
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if( spaces == 4 )
{
spaces = perfect;
}
else
{
programmer sucks
}
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why would anybody not use tabs? as long as you use the same indentation character throught your code, why not use tabs? I actually set my IDE up to only use tabs, because i really dislike having 16 different text cursor positions in front of my code instead of just 4, which actually are at exactly the spots where i could want to move indented code to. Using multiple spaces instead of single tabs requires a lot more micro management when selecting passages by mouse or keyboard properly, why would anybody prefer that?
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On August 31 2011 04:28 MisterD wrote:
why would anybody not use tabs? as long as you use the same indentation character throught your code, why not use tabs? I actually set my IDE up to only use tabs, because i really dislike having 16 different text cursor positions in front of my code instead of just 4, which actually are at exactly the spots where i could want to move indented code to. Using multiple spaces instead of single tabs requires a lot more micro management when selecting passages by mouse or keyboard properly, why would anybody prefer that?
People avoid using tabs because it doesn't look the same in every editor.
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On August 31 2011 04:28 MisterD wrote:
why would anybody not use tabs? as long as you use the same indentation character throught your code, why not use tabs? I actually set my IDE up to only use tabs, because i really dislike having 16 different text cursor positions in front of my code instead of just 4, which actually are at exactly the spots where i could want to move indented code to. Using multiple spaces instead of single tabs requires a lot more micro management when selecting passages by mouse or keyboard properly, why would anybody prefer that?
Because when viewed under different editors (you might not be the only one viewing the code) there may be different tab display settings in those editors, and you could end up with some horrendously misaligned stuff.
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Depends on the screen of myself and whoever is reading the code.
On a 19", I use 2.
If I have a 24" wide-screen, I use 4.
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Why did people ever use 8 back in the day anyways. Sounds horrible.
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I use tabs, and whenever my me and my co-workers go into the same files and muck around the result is always the end of virtue and the triumph of malignant chaos. Cba to fix.
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One would expect that people working together would make sure that problems with editor differences don't ever occur.
Seems a lot easier to do than pressing space space space space (at least!) every line. If I started doing that, it would kill me. -_-
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why would anything misalign if you use tabs? if you need to draw ascii arts into your code, make spaces from where the default indentation ends at these lines, obviously don't use tabs inside "drawings". But for normal indentation tabs are perfectly fine.
and seriously, are there still people who are incapable of setting up their tab displaying today? i mean, you don't have to use the windows editor for programming anymore, anyone who does and actually feels like he really has any reason to complain about that .. well, i wouldn't want someone like that touching my code anyways xD
i would value usage comfort higher than compatibility with people who cannot set up their editors properly. Sure, spaces are more compatible, but they are just a lot more inconvenient. And working around the incompatibility should no be a problem for anybody, so that surely does not outweigh the increased comfort when using tabs?
/edit:
On August 31 2011 04:40 Talin wrote:
One would expect that people working together would make sure that problems with editor differences don't ever occur.
Seems a lot easier to do than pressing space space space space (at least!) every line. If I started doing that, it would kill me. -_-
you actually don't type "space space space space", you type "tab" and your editor just writes down 4 spaces instead. But any editor that can do that is pretty much guaranteed to have tab display settings, so you might as well use tabs.
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Tabs don't work well because different people prefer different IDEs/editors and operating systems, so it's almost impossible to use tabs. Also, most diff tools don't work well with tabs from different OS.
Just because you use 4 spaces, it does not mean you have to press 'space' 4 times. Most IDEs offer you the option to use "soft tabs" which converts tabs to spaces automatically.
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On August 31 2011 04:41 MisterD wrote:why would anything misalign if you use tabs? if you need to draw ascii arts into your code, make spaces from where the default indentation ends at these lines, obviously don't use tabs inside "drawings". But for normal indentation tabs are perfectly fine. and seriously, are there still people who are incapable of setting up their tab displaying today? i mean, you don't have to use the windows editor for programming anymore, anyone who does and actually feels like he really has any reason to complain about that .. well, i wouldn't want someone like that touching my code anyways xD i would value usage comfort higher than compatibility with people who cannot set up their editors properly. Sure, spaces are more compatible, but they are just a lot more inconvenient. And working around the incompatibility should no be a problem for anybody, so that surely does not outweigh the increased comfort when using tabs? /edit: Show nested quote +On August 31 2011 04:40 Talin wrote:
One would expect that people working together would make sure that problems with editor differences don't ever occur.
Seems a lot easier to do than pressing space space space space (at least!) every line. If I started doing that, it would kill me. -_- you actually don't type "space space space space", you type "tab" and your editor just writes down 4 spaces instead. But any editor that can do that is pretty much guaranteed to have tab display settings, so you might as well use tabs.
In a sidenote, if I ever want to edit an html file through the web editor in cpanel, it looks horrendous whenever I tabbed instead of soft tabbed. Quite an eyesore.
But I usually just ftp that shit and use Notepad2, so it doesn't really matter very much in this case.
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But again tabs aren't the same # of spaces on each editor. Sure it's fine when when you're just indenting lines but it gets messy if you have something like:
if(variableA == 0 && variableB == variable A && variableC == 50 &&
variableC == 2031) {
Something where you want to indent an amount that looks good, but isn't necessarily 'standard'.
Also it has problems where if someone uses spaces on one line for indentation (by mistake or whatever) then it's going to throw the whole formatting off. It can also be just a general pain in the ass, for example if I'm looking at a file through source control I may just open it in notepad++ or the source control's GUI editor where the tabs aren't configured to be a good # of spaces.
Meanwhile spaces are pretty much always handled correctly and always work out well.
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On August 31 2011 04:43 Cambium wrote:
Tabs don't work well because different people prefer different IDEs/editors and operating systems, so it's almost impossible to use tabs. Also, most diff tools don't work well with tabs from different OS.
Just because you use 4 spaces, it does not mean you have to press 'space' 4 times. Most IDEs offer you the option to use "soft tabs" which converts tabs to spaces automatically.
But then if you're deleting a "tab", you'd actually have to hold backspace for long enough to erase 4 spaces instead of one character, right? Still too annoying imo, and really, all that to solve a problem that you can solve just by talking to people (who are working with/on your code), or leaving some notes for people who come later on?
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On August 31 2011 04:43 Cambium wrote:
Tabs don't work well because different people prefer different IDEs/editors and operating systems, so it's almost impossible to use tabs. Also, most diff tools don't work well with tabs from different OS.
Just because you use 4 spaces, it does not mean you have to press 'space' 4 times. Most IDEs offer you the option to use "soft tabs" which converts tabs to spaces automatically.
what? different tabs from different OS's? are you serious? xD there is only one tab char (\x09 aka \t), just as there is only one space char (\x20). There's just three different kinds of line breaks. Unix uses LF or \n or \x0d, old macs used to use CR or \r or \x0a, and windows uses CRLF or \r\n or \x0a\x0d to do line breaks. but all tabs are equal. The only difference you can see in tabs is editor settings, which set the tab width to a multiple width of spaces, but it's still just the same kind of tabs.
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On August 31 2011 04:54 Talin wrote:Show nested quote +On August 31 2011 04:43 Cambium wrote:
Tabs don't work well because different people prefer different IDEs/editors and operating systems, so it's almost impossible to use tabs. Also, most diff tools don't work well with tabs from different OS.
Just because you use 4 spaces, it does not mean you have to press 'space' 4 times. Most IDEs offer you the option to use "soft tabs" which converts tabs to spaces automatically. But then if you're deleting a "tab", you'd actually have to hold backspace for long enough to erase 4 spaces instead of one character, right? Still too annoying imo, and really, all that to solve a problem that you can solve just by talking to people (who are working with/on your code), or leaving some notes for people who come later on?
instead of backspacing 4 spaces, on most IDEs you can just select the lines and shift+tab to move them "back" one indent-width (4 spaces)
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I know people that use none. I wish I could punch code.
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I use two, even though the standard for most editors seems to be 4, it's too much in my opinion to work with.
First thing to change!
@MisterD, what micro management? Mouse control, ezpz, keyboard control? Use ctrl+shift+arrow key. To remove it, just do as you said yourself, shift+tab.
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On August 31 2011 04:58 MisterD wrote:Show nested quote +On August 31 2011 04:43 Cambium wrote:
Tabs don't work well because different people prefer different IDEs/editors and operating systems, so it's almost impossible to use tabs. Also, most diff tools don't work well with tabs from different OS.
Just because you use 4 spaces, it does not mean you have to press 'space' 4 times. Most IDEs offer you the option to use "soft tabs" which converts tabs to spaces automatically. what? different tabs from different OS's? are you serious? xD there is only one tab char (\x09 aka \t), just as there is only one space char (\x20). There's just three different kinds of line breaks. Unix uses LF or \n or \x0d, old macs used to use CR or \r or \x0a, and windows uses CRLF or \r\n or \x0a\x0d to do line breaks. but all tabs are equal. The only difference you can see in tabs is editor settings, which set the tab width to a multiple width of spaces, but it's still just the same kind of tabs.
Ah you are right. I was thinking about new line, which almost always precedes the tabs.
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Using tabs or spaces doesn't really matter as long as everybody's using the same thing. It makes diffs super annoying when you see a bunch of whitespace changes.
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I use two since it's just enough to easily tell that it's indented. When I see 4-space indents, I feel like "whoaaaa calm down there!" Plus sometimes my terminal is only 80 characters wide and won't resize.
Another style convention I'm curious about is bracket usage, i.e.
int main(void)
{
return 0;
}
vs
int main(void) {
return 0;
}
I personally prefer the first, although it probably doesn't add too much in terms of clarity.
EDIT: Er. Apparently the editor doesn't like leading spaces? The return statements above should be indented... <-- newb
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I use two spaces indent and put the open bracket at the end of the same line rather than a new line.
But since I'm an EE you should probably look at all of my programming practices and do the opposite. 
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On August 31 2011 10:11 Melchior wrote:
I use two since it's just enough to easily tell that it's indented. When I see 4-space indents, I feel like "whoaaaa calm down there!" Plus sometimes my terminal is only 80 characters wide and won't resize.
Another style convention I'm curious about is bracket usage, i.e.
int main(void)
{
return 0;
}
vs
int main(void) {
return 0;
}
I personally prefer the first, although it probably doesn't add too much in terms of clarity.
EDIT: Er. Apparently the editor doesn't like leading spaces? The return statements above should be indented... <-- newb
If you quote my earlier post that has indentations like that, it'll show you the tags.
<code> fajskfjaskflg </code> will keep formatting proper. Obviously you use [] instead of <>
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On August 31 2011 03:56 huameng wrote:
4 spaces is the standard I think. I highly recommend it.
yah, i'm pretty sure 4 is, because i always remember getting annoyed when everyone was tabbed and i would have to obsessive compulsively move everything back 1 space lmao.
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I know we programmers love coding our own way and get annoyed by seeing other programmers coding style. But I had no idea the "proper amount of spaces" was a big deal. I don't know what you guys are using that doesn't convert tabs to spaces, but I have not run into issues with using Tab and Shift+Tab.
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On August 31 2011 21:18 EscPlan9 wrote:
I know we programmers love coding our own way and get annoyed by seeing other programmers coding style. But I had no idea the "proper amount of spaces" was a big deal. I don't know what you guys are using that doesn't convert tabs to spaces, but I have not run into issues with using Tab and Shift+Tab.
I think the question is more what is your softabbing setting rather than if you do it or just use non space converting tabs.
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Depends on the language, but usually i use tabs and configure vim to use different tab sizes for different file types.
HTML: 2
PHP:
2/4/8 depending on the project i'm working on as my coworkers use wildly varying styles - from 2 spaces to some spaces, then tabs, then spaces, then start of the line or other crazy mixtures of tabs and spaces.
Perl: 4
C/C++/C#/Java: 8
Bash/Windows shell scripts: 2
SQL: Depends on the query, usually 4
Basically i go by whatever looks the most easy to read for the language and editor in question.
I don't see a reason to use spaces instead of tabs as tabs allow everyone to use the indentation he likes. It only gets crazy if spaces and tabs are mixed, but thats a fault of the programmers, not of the tabs themselves.
Basically, if you use tabs, you avoid all arguments about which indentation to use... problem solved.
On August 31 2011 04:37 EtherealDeath wrote:
Why did people ever use 8 back in the day anyways. Sounds horrible.
With small fonts, 4 character indent is too small and can easily be missed if you are not careful when reading the code, 8 gives a clearly noticeable indent and makes it easier to quickly read code.
For bigger fonts, 4 is no problem, but with a fontsize 8 or 9 px it's just too small.
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I don't really code anything serious nowadays (most I ever do at work is Excel VBA) but I've used 4 for most of the stuff.
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4 but i usually do functional stuff these days so it doesnt really show up that much.
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On August 31 2011 04:14 Torenhire wrote:if( spaces == 4 )
{
spaces = perfect;
}
else
{
programmer sucks
}
i still cant believe no one commented on how he's setting an int to perfect.
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On September 01 2011 02:55 Enderbantoo wrote:Show nested quote +On August 31 2011 04:14 Torenhire wrote:if( spaces == 4 )
{
spaces = perfect;
}
else
{
programmer sucks
} i still cant believe no one commented on how he's setting an int to perfect.
Don't forget that he forgot the line terminator in the else (though some languages allow you to skip it).
"perfect" might be a variable containing 4, ich which case that would be:
if (spaces == 4)
{
spaces = 4;
}
else
{
programmer sucks;
// is it c++? why create a variable sucks of type programmer in a scope
// where you don't do anything with. Constructor abuse?
}
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On August 31 2011 04:14 Torenhire wrote:if( spaces == 4 )
{
spaces = perfect;
}
else
{
programmer sucks
}
1>ClCompile:
1> main.c
1>.\main.c(15): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'sucks'
1>.\main.c(16): error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '}'
1>
1>Build FAILED.
if(spaces == 2 && style == "like this") {
code = "perfect";
} else {
vomit();
}
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On August 31 2011 05:07 Bibdy wrote:
I know people that use none. I wish I could punch code.
That sounds awful! I don't think I could do that. I wouldn't be able to read it, let alone anyone else.
Oh and 4. It just makes the most sense to me.
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EPT
