Oh indentation indentation...

[Mira Yurizaki]

I've been reading up on some style guides and trying to apply a universal indentation of sorts so I can move on with my life across languages in this regard (of course, if the source already exists, I'll begrudgingly use their style). As far as I can find, the big names use the following indentation sizes

• Google uses two spaces. It's also recommended in JavaScript to use two for space saving reasons since source code is sent to the client as is (but isn't that what a minifier is for?)
• HTML, Python, and pretty much most of the coding world seems to like four spaces.
• Linus Torvalds demands eight spaces (and calls anyone who prefers two or four heretics), as it makes the indentation much clearer and serves as warning you're nesting too much.

So what's your take on this? I'm used to using two spaces, but for some reason four spaces is looking mighty attractive. But then I'm all "I get less space if I adhere to the 80 column standard everyone still uses.

[Tazman192]

I've personally always used 4 spaces for indentation. It's default in 95% of IDE's and text editor's for a reason. That's interesting that Google uses 2. FWIW, Microsoft use 4. I'm not sure about any of the other big players. In Android dev presentations led by Google employees, I've never seen them use 2.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, Tazman192 said:

I've personally always used 4 spaces for indentation. It's default in 95% of IDE's and text editor's for a reason. That's interesting that Google uses 2. FWIW, Microsoft use 4. I'm not sure about any of the other big players. In Android dev presentations led by Google employees, I've never seen them use 2.

To quote at least https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html#Spaces_vs._Tabs

Quote

Use only spaces, and indent 2 spaces at a time.

We use spaces for indentation. Do not use tabs in your code. You should set your editor to emit spaces when you hit the tab key.

Though I did find their Python style guide uses four spaces, probably to comply with PEP8

[dannytech357]

I often use 2 in JavaScript, and didn't always do that. 4 spaces just felt like too much, and I didn't like it. It's as simple as that. Honestly, whatever you prefer is what you should use. I also discovered this: https://github.com/feross/standard, which has an interesting set of style rules, but I don't use it, just use their reasoning for choosing that size.

[corrado33]

I've always used tabs. However I've always used coding focused editors, so I'm sure it put spaces in for me. I think the tabs were probably ~4 spaces or so. Anything smaller and it's hard to discern where the indentation is. 4 spaces seems enough to be able to find the beginning and matching end for a loop just by a quick glance. 

[vorticalbox]

6 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

I've always used tabs. However I've always used coding focused editors, so I'm sure it put spaces in for me. I think the tabs were probably ~4 spaces or so. Anything smaller and it's hard to discern where the indentation is. 4 spaces seems enough to be able to find the beginning and matching end for a loop just by a quick glance. 

python checkers will pull you up on white space over tabs so I've always used tabs. Each nested part of code is one tab in from the last.

[Guest]

I don't use indentations what now? I just put my programming code in a single line.

 

[2FA]

I use 4 since that is what I taught that when learning C in a Unix environment. Funny enough, the text editors I used had tab as 8 spaces.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

I use 4 since that is what I taught that when learning C in a Unix environment. Funny enough, the text editors I used had tab as 8 spaces.

I have a feeling Linus's influence got a hold of them if it was vim or emacs...

[madknight3]

You forgot to list tabs as an option. Some people like to use tabs because many editors can be customized to display tabs how you want without effecting the plain text. So if someone on your team likes 2 spaces, you like 4, and another likes 8, you can all view it the way you want with tabs.

 

That seems pretty appealing although I've never really given it a chance. I've been using 4 spaces for as long as I can remember.

[2FA]

8 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I have a feeling Linus's influence got a hold of them if it was vim or emacs...

I haven't used emacs but vim, nano, and pico all have 8 spaces.

[PocketNerd]

I just hit Tab in any IDE or text editor I'm working in, if it compiles I'm happy

[Mira Yurizaki]

21 minutes ago, madknight3 said:

You forgot to list tabs as an option. Some people like to use tabs because many editors can be customized to display tabs how you want without effecting the plain text. So if someone on your team likes 2 spaces, you like 4, and another likes 8, you can all view it the way you want with tabs.

 

That seems pretty appealing although I've never really given it a chance. I've been using 4 spaces for as long as I can remember.

Tabs doesn't provide consistency though. Especially since a lot of professional coding groups still say you should keep code within 80 columns, if you have different tab spaces, the person who coded with 8 space tabs will run into line break issues if they opened up a file from someone who coded in 2 space tabs.

[straight_stewie]

2 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

 

I've been reading up on some style guides and trying to apply a universal indentation of sorts so I can move on with my life across languages in this regard (of course, if the source already exists, I'll begrudgingly use their style). As far as I can find, the big names use the following indentation sizes

• Google uses two spaces. It's also recommended in JavaScript to use two for space saving reasons since source code is sent to the client as is (but isn't that what a minifier is for?)
• HTML, Python, and pretty much most of the coding world seems to like four spaces.
• Linus Torvalds demands eight spaces (and calls anyone who prefers two or four heretics), as it makes the indentation much clearer and serves as warning you're nesting too much.

So what's your take on this? I'm used to using two spaces, but for some reason four spaces is looking mighty attractive. But then I'm all "I get less space if I adhere to the 80 column standard everyone still uses.

I hit tab and let whatever IDE I'm using handle it for me. Normally they are set to convert a tab to four spaces, which looks pretty nice to my eyes.

[Mira Yurizaki]

18 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

If a line in special is much longer than the rest, break it into smaller lines and that is it.

That's probably why lots of people still adhere to it. If you're breaking 100 columns, you might be doing something wrong.

 

Like how Linus will tear you a new one if you have more than two nested things (I try not to take his coding style to heart, but my goodness he's like the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket when it comes to coding style)

[Ktk]

Just do what your organization refers to in their style guide. You'll have to change based on where you work. It's not asking for much!

 

Just configure your editor to make tab equal 2 spaces or 4 spaces or \t.

[OhadShwartzman]

I normally hit tab twice(1 tab=4) and that just helps me understand that 2 things are connected more easily