Why you should Indent with Spaces

I avoid tabs in all code I write. That’s why you can read my code in your browser with the exact same formatting as it had in my IDE – no matter what browser or device you are using: Nuclex Framework sources in TRAC. Yet from time to time, I encounter people evangelizing tabs.

While I am fine with working on projects that use tab characters and I neither argue about the decision to use tabs nor intentionally divert from their style, I do have an opinion and it is that you should avoid tabs wherever you can.

Even the one, lonely, supposed advantage of tabs – users being able to choose their preferred indentation level – is a drawback in disguise because you no longer can set a safe limit for line lengths (see below).

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