[o11c]

There absolutely is a consensus: a hard tab is defined as 8 spaces in numerous standards (obviously this only applies to monospace fonts).

The fact that people choose to reject this does not change the reality.

[Joker_vD]

Like what standards, exactly? POSIX in its tabs(1) [0] and expand(1) [1] clearly states that tab stops can be wherever, and "every 8 columns" is just a default.

[0] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/t...

[1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/e...

[zamadatix]

That still wouldn't give consensus on how many spaces people using spaces should use, it would (originally) give consensus on how many spaces a tab was supposed to be.

[eviks]

Reality is what people use. Consensus is what almost all people agree on. Standard is just some rule a few people thought would be good to follow.

[g-b-r]

The few applications that don't let you configure it are less relevant now, and the alternative to consider tabs of varying lentgh would be to introduce a new spacing character in their place; hardly feasible.

[maccard]

Really? What standards are they?