How to use tabs for leading indentation

You do it like this:

class Foo {
[tab]function doCoolStuff {
[tab][tab]print("I am great!\n".
[tab][tab]      "Are you great, too?");
[tab][tab]
[tab][tab]$a    = "Aye";
[tab][tab]$junk = "Junk";
[tab]}
}

Note that:

• Tabs are used to indent entire blocks, not for visual alignment.
• Tabs are never used except as the first characters on a line!
• Spaces are used to line things up visually that have the same block indentation (e.g. the quotes and the equalses in the above example).
• If you set your editor's tab-width to an uncommon value like 3, 5, or 7, it will help you spot places where this convention was not followed.
• Josh would argue with me about the middle line, but you can still use this convention for non-blank lines. I would indent blank lines so that the block structure always matches the indentation because I think that whether a line is part of a block is more important than whether it happens to be otherwise blank.

See also

• Dmitry Frank agrees with me.
• This usage is also known as Smart Tabs.