In Python, if you save your file with tabs as spaces, the code 1) still works, and 2) does the same thing it did before. Furthermore, it prohibits mixing tabs and spaces up in the same file, on the basis that it's impossible to reliably determine indentation levels then. So this isn't really a major issue with Python, unlike Make.
Sure, I'm happy to agree that the original design of make is kind of questionable. My point was that an editor which can handle telling you to not mix tabs and spaces in python should also be able to tell you to use tabs in a Makefile. Or, if you prefer, that if python can say "only tabs xor spaces" and be seen as reasonable, then make can say "only tabs" and be equally reasonable.
The editor doesn't need to do anything special to avoid mixing tabs and spaces in Python - quite the opposite, the simplest editors (the ones that either preserve or expand all tabs when you save, depending on the setting) will do.
