In article <5160cc44$0$29995$c3e8da3$54964...@news.astraweb.com>, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:20:32 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote: > > > On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 12:52 AM, Nobody <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote: > >> Historically, software and hardware which assigns a meaning to a tab > >> character has come in two flavours: > >> > >> 1. Tab stops are every 8 columns; this cannot be changed. 2. Tab stops > >> are configurable, defaulting to every 8 columns. > > > > 3. Tab stops are measured in something other than characters. > > > > With variable-width fonts, it's illogical to set tab stops in > > characters. DeScribe Word Processor defined them in centimeters, way > > back in the early... well, I didn't meet it till the 90s, but I don't > > know how long it had been around before that. > > > Am I the only one here who has used a typewriter? > > Tab stops were set manually, to a physical distance into the page, using > a mechanical stop. This long predates the "rule" that tab stops are every > 8 characters. Yup. I learned on a good old manual, with mechanical "Tab Set" and "Tab Clear" function. Of course, on an 029, you set the tab stops by punching a drum card. > If your editor doesn't support setting tab stops to at least single pixel > resolution, it's not supporting tabs, it's supporting something else that > it merely calls "tabs". Yup. I use emacs. "M-X edit tab stops" does that. Like so much else about emacs, I haven't used that feature in years (gee, maybe decades), but it's nice to know it's there. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
