Re: Controlling size of a tab character (U+0009)

Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> On Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:33:08 +0100, David Woolley 
> <forums@david-woolley.me.uk> wrote:
>> I'm assuming that a tab isn't just a macro for n spaces, as that 
>> doesn't seem a reasonable interpretation.
> 
> Why not? That's exactly how tab is defined in CSS today. (And how most 
> text editors go about it, as far as I know.)

vi certainly doesn't work that way; it interprets tab as meaning add 
enough spaces to move to the next multiple of n characters.  That's also 
how mechanical teletypes worked.

If it really does just mean insert n spaces here, it is pure lexical 
sugar and better left to authoring to expand.




-- 
David Woolley
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Received on Tuesday, 9 December 2008 21:44:36 UTC