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Religious technical opinions
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Picuino:
It is curious how many technicians think about some banal and almost silly options in a quasi-religious way.

For example I ALWAYS try to program with spaces instead of tabs. It could have been the other way around, but in the end I opted for the spaces and no one will change my mind. Programming with tabs is like a pain for me.




The same thing happens many times with Vi and Emacs, Linux and Windows or other spurious options.
It seems that people's minds are programmed to take sides and we think that it is the only true way of seeing things. That creates endless arguments that seem to go nowhere because both sides are convinced the other is wrong.

That is so and we all assume it for political or religious opinions, but it never ceases to amaze me that it also occurs in things as banal as spaces and tabs.

Regards.
eugene:
It's hard for me to take the video seriously when they're using Apple computers.

EDIT:  :-DD
NiHaoMike:
I think the preference for tabs over spaces was made popular by web developers, where back in the days, the difference would be a significant improvement in loading speed. Of course, it really began with the first programming language that could accept either tabs or spaces, back when storage was expensive and so every byte added up.
Siwastaja:

--- Quote from: Picuino on February 19, 2022, 01:20:22 pm ---Programming with tabs is like a pain for me.
--- End quote ---

Right there, you answered your own question without even realizing you asked that question!

If programming with tabs is like pain for you, what happens if you pull a code file from a co worker, written with tabs, and need to work with that file together?

It's pain to you: for technical, actual reasons: the fact you have learned to use spaces, like you learn to ride a bicycle, so tabs really work slower for you. Maybe the text editor of your choice works better with spaces, too.

So it's not a meaningless thing, nor it's a religious thing, but a practical, actual one.

For me, it's the opposite, I want the tabs, but the pain is exactly the same.

Of course, now the big decision part is, are you going to be an asshole and start fighting about it, or accept the different viewpoint, slowing down your workflow, or try to work out some compromise.

Many simply won't want to accept slowing down their work, because they think it is important. While a bit selfish, this is also natural and understandable.

Finally, the deciding factor again is, not religion, but actual engineering question: the choice of text editor and its configuration. It either makes or breaks the usage of spaces or tabs.

So sorry, I don't agree; this isn't a religious technical opinion, but an actual technical one. The fact that personal learning process is part of that technicality, and you could have ended up either way, does not make it religious.
cgroen:

--- Quote from: Siwastaja on February 19, 2022, 01:54:32 pm ---
--- Quote from: Picuino on February 19, 2022, 01:20:22 pm ---Programming with tabs is like a pain for me.
--- End quote ---

Right there, you answered your own question without even realizing you asked that question!

If programming with tabs is like pain for you, what happens if you pull a code file from a co worker, written with tabs, and need to work with that file together?

It's pain to you: for technical, actual reasons: the fact you have learned to use spaces, like you learn to ride a bicycle, so tabs really work slower for you. Maybe the text editor of your choice works better with spaces, too.

So it's not a meaningless thing, nor it's a religious thing, but a practical, actual one.

For me, it's the opposite, I want the tabs, but the pain is exactly the same.

Of course, now the big decision part is, are you going to be an asshole and start fighting about it, or accept the different viewpoint, slowing down your workflow, or try to work out some compromise.

Many simply won't want to accept slowing down their work, because they think it is important. While a bit selfish, this is also natural and understandable.

Finally, the deciding factor again is, not religion, but actual engineering question: the choice of text editor and its configuration. It either makes or breaks the usage of spaces or tabs.

So sorry, I don't agree; this isn't a religious technical opinion, but an actual technical one. The fact that personal learning process is part of that technicality, and you could have ended up either way, does not make it religious.

--- End quote ---

Totally agree!

I used to be a "space guy" (for more than 20 years), 16 years ago I "converted" to tab in all software I write (which is a lot), this is across many different tools, for me this has been so much easier!
Nothing to do with "religion".
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