From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Sam question From: "rob pike" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <20010817141807.750DB199DD@mail.cse.psu.edu> Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 10:15:18 -0400 Topicbox-Message-UUID: e131c352-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 People spend too much time fussing about how wide (read: how many characters) a tab should be. This "retab" program is a perfect example of that old-think. Tab stops, as computing uses them, become much less meaningful in the world of variable-pitch fonts, the world of today. Someone needs to figure out how to make tab stops become true places on the screen, rather than just an approximation simulated using the width of spaces or numbers, without breaking the model of simple text we've come to know and love. It's a tough problem. Meanwhile, the output from ls -l and ps is suffering, people. -rob