From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" <DAGwyn@null.net>
Message-ID: <3B7D9762.BD59C562@null.net>
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References: <20010817141807.750DB199DD@mail.cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Sam question
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 08:56:56 +0000
Topicbox-Message-UUID: e3189b96-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

rob pike wrote:
> 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.

I agree that it's "old-think", but that's appropriate
since retab's main use is to present a display of an
"old" document in the manner intended/assumed by the
document's creator.  (The four main environments I've
encountered have been: every 8th column, every 5th
column, every 4th column, and no tab support at all.)

Obviously, the need for such a tool suggests that the
original environmental assumptions were a bad idea.