[rusk]

I thought they were for aligning columns in a table (hence “tab”), rather than indentation? This goes back to typewriters. Sure you could abuse it for indentation and perhaps that became common practice at one point but it doesn’t mean that’s what it’s “for” any more than spaces.

[treesprite82]

> This goes back to typewriters. Sure you could abuse it for indentation and perhaps that became common practice at one point [...]

Indentation (specifically the first line of each paragraph) was arguably the first widespread use of the tab key. The annoyance with using it for actual tables was that generally you'd want numeric data to be right-justified (so that digits of equal significance align vertically). So I wouldn't really call it an abuse, especially on modern keyboards.

[rusk]

Arguably yes. And arguably spaces are better for indentation as a matter of convenience and accessiblity and you can’t make any strong argument that it’s what tab is “for” based on original purpose.

[treesprite82]

> and you can’t make any strong argument that it’s what tab is “for” based on original purpose

I didn't claim as such - I'm just contesting your claim that using tab for indentation is an "abuse" because it's "for aligning columns in a table".

[rusk]

That’s fine. You’re supporting my point in that case.

[dTal]

I'd say they're "for" whatever we want. Nowadays they're far more widely used for semantic indent than for tabular alignment.

[rusk]

Sorry I misunderstood you, I thought you were making the argument that spaces aren’t for indentation.