Code editors struggle with nonstandard indentation needs
Developers maintaining legacy or style-constrained code need to control how indentation is inserted and displayed independently, including files that mix tabs and spaces. Some also want display-only adjustments for readability or accessibility, without rewriting source files or changing project settings. Current workarounds in the evidence include switching editors, converting indentation, or relying on whole-file formatters.
For developers maintaining legacy and style-constrained code. Mentioned from Apr 2016 to Jun 2024 on GitHub and Hacker News.
13 different people described this problem in 4 separate discussions.
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What people said
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The GNU coding style also mandates indenting by two columns, using as many tabs as possible (where 1 tab is 8 columns) and the rest using spaces. So it's impossible to use vscode (or any other monaco-based editor) to work on these
Right now, in order to view such files correctly one needs to set the tab size to 8, convert the file to use only spaces and then set the indentation size to the correct value. However, when working on legacy code it is desired to keep the indentation method the same to avoid unnecessary commits
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