It is SO STUPID that spaces are widely preferred for indentation in code.

For the past, I don’t know, two hours I’ve been trying to fix YAML formatting issues that could have been fixed without any human intervention if only tabs were used. (It’s a big file, hence the duration.) (I know YAML doesn’t support tabs. That’s kind of my point.)

I even reluctantly asked Gemini (forced upon me by work; I was hoping it would change my mind in this case) why anyone would prefer spaces. It said the same irrelevant thing most people say: because some tools don’t support tabs properly.

Know what that sounds like to me? A problem with the fucking tool.

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this, but I can’t think of a better option.

  • dudeface@lemmy.world
    5·
    7 days ago

    I have worked on projects that get run through automatic formatting when committed to repos

    Perhaps you need something like that and you can auto format the way you want on the way out

    • fonix232@fedia.io
      2·
      7 days ago

      Git has post-checkout and pre-commit hooks that can easily do this.

      Means your local copy is in your style, but you commit in the repo style.

      Insane thing to do, but nobody’s stopping you…

      • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
        53·
        6 days ago

        Or people could do the logical thing and just use tabs.

        edit: remove extra space.

        • dudeface@lemmy.world
          1·
          6 days ago

          My text editor will use spaces if it is in the liter file or how it auto detects in yaml files etc

          The experience is no different when using tab / shift+tab

          • toynbee@lemmy.worldOP
            1·
            6 days ago

            The experience of entering the text isn’t the part to which I object.

            Claiming that spaces as indentation are functionally equivalent to tabs is what inspires my objection.

            • dudeface@lemmy.world
              1·
              6 days ago

              I don’t think you gave an example in your original post as how tabs would have solved your problem, and dealing with yaml a lot myself I can’t imagine exactly what may have happened besides incorrect indentation

              I get rich errors with yaml language server and I configure it with spec files for kubernetes manifests so it tells me exactly where my issues are

    • anotherandrew@lemmy.mixdown.caEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      Automatic code formatting, and failing a PR due to an automatic formatter is lazy and wrong. Code formatting should be a (strong) set of guidelines, but never a hard and fast rule. Every code base ends up with some section that is visually easier to understand but breaks the formatting check.