Edward Elliott wrote:
>Dave Hansen wrote:
>
>
>I fail to see why less 'will work' but cat 'doesn't always work'.
>
The distinction is not in the choice of program, but in the
way it is being used...
>The net
>effect of both is the same. Unless you're in some weird place that pipes
>aren't allowed, these should be equivalent:
>
>cat file |sed 's/\t/ /g' |less
>less -x4 file
>
>
Nope. To demonstrate, I will use "T" to represent tab characters
and "S" to represent spaces (I think this will be
a lot easier to read):
In a properly formatting program, with tabstops at intervals of 4:
A=
"""
SSTSTdefSspam(self,Sfoo):
STTSSSSbarS=S1/foo
TTSTreturnSbar
"""
and
B =
"""
TTdefSspam(self,Sfoo):
SSSSSSSSSSSSbarS=S1/foo
TTTreturnSbar
"""
should render exactly the same (i.e. like the following):
A=B=
"""
def spam(self, foo):
bar = 1/foo
return bar
"""
However, if we have tabstop set to 8 (the usual default),
then they will render differently:
A=
"""
def spam(self, foo):
bar = 1/foo
return bar
"""
B=
"""
def spam(self, foo):
bar = 1/foo
return bar
"""
(both are syntax errors, of course).
Presumeably, the "x" option to less will correctly handle
tabs (I didn't know about that -- thanks, BTW), but your
sed substitution doesn't "jump to the next tabstop" when
it hits a tab, it always adds a fixed number of spaces. So
it mangles the code too:
A=
"""
def spam(self, foo):
bar = 1/foo
return bar
"""
B=
"""
def spam(self, foo):
bar = 1/foo
return bar
"""
>Now if you're talking about the conversion altering the data's semantics,
>that's a separate issue that has nothing to do with unix utilities and
>everything to do with the file formatting. In that case, I'll simply refer
>you to the rest of this thread for discussion.
>
>
Now, of course, the data I provide is nasty, mean, poorly-formatted
data, abhorable by space-zealots and tab-libertines alike (;-)), but the
point is, unless you have set up your editor to syntax color spaces
and tabs differently, you won't see the difference in the original
editor.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
