From: kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 08:37:14 -0500
Message-Id: <9611131337.AA04001@quasar.bloomberg.com >
To: tor AT sn DOT no
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-Reply-To: <328c0dd0.353900065@news.sn.no> (tor@sn.no)
Subject: Re: Make problem with spaces instead of tabs
Reply-To: kagel AT dg1 DOT bloomberg DOT com

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   From: tor AT sn DOT no (Tor Sjowall)
   Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
   Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 00:00:25 GMT
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   References: <3288FD63 DOT 2544 AT fab DOT net>
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   Eric Christopherson <Draximus AT fab DOT net> wrote:

   >I'm sure many of you have got the message from make that there is a
   >missing spearator. In most cases that I have seen, this means that a
   >statement has spaces in front of it, rather than an actual tab. In my
   >experience, if you change the spaces to a tab, make works fine. What I
   >want to know is this: is there a version of make that accepts the
   >spaces, and/or is there a program to automatically change spaces at the
   >beginning of lines to tabs?

   If you look in the source for make-3.75, you will find the following:
[SNIP]
   It is easy to change these lines to check for space in addition to tab.

   I'm sure there is some historic argument for insisting on the tabulator as
   a prefix to make command lines, but I cannot see any problems with
   accepting a space too.

The <TAB> character must begin a dependent command in a makefile because that
is the language specification.  One might just as well call the curly braces in
"C" an historical remnant and change the compiler to accept the string "BEGIN"
for "{" and "END" for "}".  This would be more convenient for Pascal/Modula 2
programmers but it would not be "C"!  Just because Microsoft and Borland saw
fit to ignore the language spec when they wrote their own Make utilities and
Microsoft cannot manage to make an editor that conveniently generates a <TAB>
when the operator enters a <TAB> is no reason to continue this nonsense.  Not
only that but (once again the Preacher climbs on the portability soapbox) if
you use such a modified Make your make files will not be portable to LINUX or
any other UNIX version.  MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEMS ARE NOT THE ONLY OPERATING
SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD!  WRITE PORTABLE CODE!  (The Preacher steps down from the
platform, closing his holy book on the way.;-#)

-- 
Art S. Kagel, kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com

A proverb is no proverb to you 'till life has illustrated it.  -- John Keats