Tabs are designed for tabulation (hence the name), not indentation. The side effect is that a tab’s length changes based on its position in a line, which is terrible for programming. If you use tabs in the Python REPL, it looks like this:
>>>deffrobnicate_all(arr):>>>for item in arr:>>> frobnicate(item)
Tab goes to the next stop, the same way newline goes to the next line. Exactly the same way. If you write more text before the next line, the amount of whitespace shrinks. That doesn’t mean the “length” of a newline changes. It always goes one line.
Tabs are designed for tabulation (hence the name), not indentation. The side effect is that a tab’s length changes based on its position in a line, which is terrible for programming. If you use tabs in the Python REPL, it looks like this:
>>> def frobnicate_all(arr): >>> for item in arr: >>> frobnicate(item)How long is a newline?
A newline is the separator between lines, so the concept of length doesn’t make sense for it.
Correct.
And a tab is the separator between stops.
Indeed. It’s a separator, so using it for indentation doesn’t make sense.
Stops are indentation.
They’re what you indent… to.
Tab goes to the next stop, the same way newline goes to the next line. Exactly the same way. If you write more text before the next line, the amount of whitespace shrinks. That doesn’t mean the “length” of a newline changes. It always goes one line.
A tab always goes one stop.
What does this even mean? A tab is a tab.
Tab’s don’t have multiple lengths inside a file, they all have the same length.
That’s the point of tabs.