From: gfoot AT mc31 DOT merton DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk (George Foot)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: n
Date: 9 Mar 1997 09:21:20 GMT
Organization: Oxford University
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <5ftveg$o54@news.ox.ac.uk>
References: <5f1s2a$bju AT oban DOT cc DOT ic DOT ac DOT uk> <331EF4EC DOT 7617FED2 AT alcyone DOT com> <5ftnki$l1p AT freenet-news DOT carleton DOT ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mc31.merton.ox.ac.uk
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Paul Derbyshire (ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA) wrote:


: I think make should probably be changed to be less limited. This tab
: matter seems awfully pedantic, *especially* given that a lot of editors on
: intel machines tend to insert 4 or 8 spaces rather than ascii 0x09 for the
: tab key, thereby making it impossible for many users to use make without
: either spending six years figuring out Emacs or buying a costly
: non-freeware editor.

You're exaggerating a bit... Emacs isn't that hard to learn. Also, RHIDE
can be configured to use proper tabs (although it will generate a full
makefile for you anyway). If your editor puts a string of spaces in when
you press tab, it is broken and needs fixing. And yes, I class MS-DOS 
edit as broken.

I doubt you'll convince the FSF to change thier official distribution just
to suit a bunch of DOS users. If you want to edit your own copy, someone
posted ages ago with the change - IIRC it was only one line that needed
altering.

-- 
George Foot <gfoot AT mc31 DOT merton DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk>
Merton College, Oxford.