Why spaces and no tabs

Question

Czar · Answer

because holy war slightly smiling face

karelpeeters · Answer

Dammit here we go

Ruckus · Answer

Kotlin is designed for your success <https stackoverflow blog 2017 06 15 developers use spaces make money use tabs >

hudsonb · Answer

Dominaezzz · Answer

What I meant was why is there a preference in the style guide

Dominaezzz · Answer

I don t think Kotlin should be picking a side

karelpeeters · Answer

Consistency is definitely more important than either of the options themselves and in the end Idea has to pick a default anyway might as well specify it

Dominaezzz · Answer

Hmmm fair enough There should ve been a vote or something for which side to pick though

Czar · Answer

Meh money isn t all I m sticking with tabs they re much more versatile stuck out tongue

Dominaezzz · Answer

Because tabs are clearly built for indentation stuck out tongue winking eye

karelpeeters · Answer

Well spaces is the most used on GitHub in Java land in general and it was already the default for Idea in Java

karelpeeters · Answer

Again consistency consistency consistency

karelpeeters · Answer

I hate that spaces won too but I don t notice the difference anyway with how good the indentation in Idea has become

Dominaezzz · Answer

Spaces might be most used but what do Kotliners want though

Czar · Answer

To be honest if I was the company behind an IDE it would ve had tabs which is my preference as default So in case of IntelliJ it s probably just that Jetbrains developers chose spaces for themselves at some point and naturally made them default slightly smiling face

Dominaezzz · Answer

I don t notice spaces til I have to move my cursor through them lol

Czar · Answer

I also wonder how many developers use spaces got used to spaces rather just because it came as the default setting in their IDE

Dominaezzz · Answer

Chicken and egg I guess

Czar · Answer

anyway my solution was to become a teamlead and put tabs in the team style guide slightly smiling face troll

Shawn · Answer

tabs were the default in my first editor

Shawn · Answer

I am fully aboard the spaces train now however

Dominaezzz · Answer

Hmmm

karelpeeters · Answer

I used to care when I started out I was missing the bigger picture I think One day I reinstalled Idea and I couldn t be bothered to find the setting

Shawn · Answer

I mean big same it doesn t end up mattering that much and if I ever end up working for a shop that picked tabs in their style guide I won t throw a fit

Shawn · Answer

but if I were writing up a style guide like the JB folks were and had to pick between the two I m going with spaces

hudsonb · Answer

I use w e my IDE inserts when I hit the tab key

Alowaniak · Answer

I like to set my tab width on 4 and then do 3 spaces and 1 tab