
400,000 GitHub repositories,1B files,14 terabytes of code:Spaces or Tabs? - subliminalpanda
https://medium.com/@hoffa/400-000-github-repositories-1-billion-files-14-terabytes-of-code-spaces-or-tabs-7cfe0b5dd7fd#.kj13d5sgx
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Rockslide
I just don't get it. No one would argue that there clearly are different
preferences in terms of the preferred indention width among different
developers. So who on earth thinks: hey, I like an indention of 2 spaces.
Let's just require that for every person on earth who will ever have to deal
with my source code. Just indent with tabs and everyone is happy.

Furthermore, when people are asked why they prefer spaces, the answer very
often is along the lines of "because then my code looks the same on every
machine and no matter where I look at it". Which, in my opinion, is totally
misguided. Indenting code is not about looking the same to everyone
everywhere, it's about gaining the best readability for everyone, and there
just can't be a sane default for that intrinsically.

~~~
collyw
I remember getting a course years ago. and they said that scientific studies
"with guys with clipboards" as they put it found that 6 spaces was the optimal
width for readability. Not that I have ever seen anyone use that.

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greenyoda
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12397246](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12397246)

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ericfrederich
They mention that they searched for Python but it isn't represented in the
charts.

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speps
I've always loved the intention behind `gofmt`, you can see the result here.

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collyw
Can't believe there are no comments already. (Spaces by the way).

