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by dkersten 2543 days ago
The poster said that the reason to prefer tabs is because his visually impaired coworkers find spaces difficult. You said “this is one of the stupidest reasons I’ve ever read”. What I asked you is in direct response to your statement as your statement (calling the reason given by people who are actually affected stupid) makes it very much sound like you don’t care about their plight and I am asking if they’re wrong because you aren’t affected. My questions are for sure loaded, but I’m asking you, not putting words in your month.
1 comments
sureaboutthis 2543 days ago
The post is about "the real reason" and the real reason was never for impaired workers and it is not "the real reason" in almost all cases!

Quit using the minority to represent the majority!

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dkersten 2543 days ago
Maybe not "the" real reason, but it is a real reason.

> Quit using the minority to represent the majority!

Where did I do that, exactly? In my interaction with you, I didn't even say whether or not I agree with TFA, I only asked if its a non-issue because 1) you're not affected and 2) people have argued about it for a long time. Yes, yes, my questions were loaded and probably assumed too much, but given the tone of your comment (calling it the stupidest reason, even though its clearly a very valid concern for the people affected), I feel I was justified in doing so.

So, let me ask you two different questions then:

1. Do you agree that one should use tabs over spaces if there are visually impaired people on your team, who have difficulty with spaces?

2. Given that you can't know who may have to touch your code in the future, why do you think that its not worth doing so preemptively?

Obviously, a valid answer to 2. is "no, because the likelihood that it will matter is low", which is true, but given that the cost of using tabs over spaces is super low, but the cost of using spaces for those it affects is high (sure, you can convert, but see elsewhere in these comments, its not perfect), I feel like its an easy choice. Obviously you disagree, which is fine and not the reason I'm arguing with you.

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