Re: TABS and the nature of existance -Reply

[Jim Hardesty <jhardest@LMBERRY.COM>]

Gee Tony, how do you get your shirt on with a head so large?  :)

I understand Mike took a fairly evangelistic tone in his message.  And the natural
reaction is to strongly defend your own position.  But it's juvenile to dismiss his
arguement as illogical simply because you disagree.  And I see no excuse for
attacking him personally.

Yelling "YOU'RE WRONG AND A JERK BESIDES" is no way to win an
arguement.  At least not after Jr High.

jim

- A great teacher taught me "As you go through life, always remember one thing".

>>> Tony DeLia <tdelia@EROLS.COM> 08/17/99 07:26am >>>
Mike,
   Nice lecture... Too bad you didn't pay attention to the original
post... My editor supports tabs without a problem... I said someone used
a shareware editor (designed for a 286 processor) which inserted
additional special characters not supported by SQR (not an editor
issue!)... As a consultant it's important to select an editor which has
the lowest common denominator of functionality... meaning no special
characters... I repeat "Why taint the source code for the mere luxury of
laziness?"... You've conveniently shifted that responsibility to someone
other than yourself (A true "I-need-tools-point-n-click" generation
response)... Imagine expaining to a client that all their developers
need to "get with the 20th century" and change their editors to
something more modern to support the work they've surely overpaid for...
I'd like to be in the room when some "other" consultant explains this to
the client! Funny stuff! For goodness sake, the idea that you won't
support something as common as simple non-TAB "gruntwork" is more than
enough reason to dump this profession right then and there... I was
completely unaware hitting a space key was gruntwork... God help us!

     Tony DeLia

PS - The only good programming tool required is your mind... although
that may vary by individual... Contrary to your post my argument is
based entirely on logic... enjoy your TAB key!

Mike Jackmin wrote:
>
> Speaking of pet peeves... the tab issue, like many issues of programming
> style, is often not based in logic so much as it is based on our need to
> compensate for our lousy, outdated tools.
>
> I use tabs, but you'll never know it - my nice, modern editor provides a
> simple setting to convert tabs to whitespace when the files are saved. It
> also provides a nice setting to convert whitespace back to tabs, if I wish,
> when I read it back in.
>
> In short, the computer is doing the grunt work. They love grunt work.
>
> If  you are doing grunt work, and if you hate it as much as I do, I suggest
> you get a more modern tool to work with and join the 20th century while
> there is still time. For goodness sake, the idea that your toolset won't
> support something as common as a TAB without raising hell is more than
> enough reason to dump it right then and there.
>
> The same goes for email that won't handle attachments, debuggers that don't
> show you what you want to see and source code control that is too difficult
> to use on a daily basis. Almost any good programming tool will pay for
> itself within months, considering both the costs of our salaries and the
> cost of fixing an error after the fact.
>
> MikeJ

--
Tony DeLia
AnswerThink Consulting Group
PeopleSoft Solutions Practice - Delphi Partners
tdelia@erols.com
http://www.sqrtools.com