Nobody <nob...@nowhere.com> writes: > On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:18:47 -0500, Tim Chase wrote: > >> Yes, the dictatorial "a tab always equals 8 spaces" > > Saying "always" is incorrect; it is more accurate to say that tab stops > are every 8 columns unless proven otherwise, with the burden of proof > falling on whoever wants to use something different.
I suspect Tim was referring to the Python tokenizer. Internally, barring the existence of one of a few Emacs/vi tab setting commands in the file, Python always assigns the logical indentation level for a tab to align with the next multiple-of-8 column. This is unrelated to how someone might choose to display such a file. So mixing tabs and spaces and using a visual display setting of something other than 8 for the tab size (other than one consistent with an instruction embedded in the file) can yield a discrepancy between what is shown on the screen and how the same code is perceived by the Python compiler. This in turn may cause errors or code to execute at different indent levels than expected. Thus, in general, such a mixture is a bad idea, and as per this thread, no longer permitted in a single block in Python 3.x. -- David -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
