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Showing posts from September, 2010

My Views on Code Indentation

I have read many, many articles about the whole tab vs. space indentation thing. Personally, I don't necessarily agree with most of them. They will require the coder to use a specific indentation size and stick with it, even forcing that on other coders. First off, let me outline my method for indenting code. Then I will explain the reasons and advantages/disadvantages. When I indent code, I will use tabs, but only at the beginning of a line. To align something in the rest of the line, I will use spaces. If a line spills to the next line(s), I will indent that line two tabs further. Rationale: Tabs Why tabs? First off, they're compact in the file (1 byte each). This is really insignificant with current disk sizes, but still. If you indent in spaces, then your file will be larger (unless you indent with one space). Another advantage of tabs is that a tab is a tab. It doesn't specify by how many spaces the code is indented, but rather by how many tabs it is indente