[layer8]

Because a coworker might want (tabs*4 + chars) < $defined_width. Whatever multiplier you pick, it will either mean a too short or too long limit, and inconsistent limits between lines depending on how much indented a line is, if everyone uses a different tab size.

[aeonik]

Parent comment edited I think,

But I was addressing the the issue if enforcing column widths in a shared code base. I interpreted their statement as something like "you can't enforce column width in a code base with tabs".

But if someone changes their tab width, it's easy to check if it goes over 80, given a standard of 2 space tabs, and they use 1. Is they don't indent enough, that's harder.

I personally reformat code temporarily depending on what I'm doing, column width to me is a publishing standard, I don't care about it while I'm deep in the code.

[layer8]

Before the parent's edit it was about line length limits, IIRC. In any case that's what my comment was referring to. If you want to limit line length to, say, 100 characters (to visually fit within a 100-character wide window or terminal), then it matters what tab width you use. If you check it assuming a tab width of 8, someone working with a tab width of 2 will be limited to shorter lines the deeper the indentation level. Conversely, when the check assumes a tab width of 2, someone working with a tab width of 8 is likely to see lines longer than 100 characters although the lines passed the check.