Improving Convert Spaces To Tabs

Some believe ConvertSpacesToTabs is a wart on an otherwise elegant set of TextFormattingRules. (Contrast IntelligentDefaults.)

The ConvertSpacesToTabs checkbox is something we check nearly every single time we submit a page. Newer users often forget to do so, leaving funky results.

Solutions on the Wiki server's side:

• Do Away With Tabs Altogether -- The UseModWiki script is modified so that tabs are unnecessary. Tabs are troublesome because they mean different things to different people, render differently and are hard to input. This would obsolete the ConvertSpacesToTabs button altogether. (See TabRefactoring.)

• Make ConvertSpacesToTabs the Default -- Why not? The only reason I can think is that there might be some pages that rely on spaces staying spaces. However, in my experience, you just can't rely on spaces, as someone is going to make them tabs eventually.

• Use a Cookie -- It would be a small cookie and could remember your last setting easily.

• Change it -- Instead of converting spaces to tabs, make it convert the sequence ->| to a tab; that will avoid screwing up code samples.

Solutions on the user's side:

• Use a Proxy Filter to Make ConvertSpacesToTabs the Default -- Maybe this is a little involved, but it would pay off for WikiAddicts who don't like repetitive tasks.

• Follow a TipForTypingTab -- Such as copying & pasting tabs.

• Grin and Bear It

    Grin
                        and
            Bear
        It 
                                   :-)

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ConvertSpacesToTabs screws up code samples.

Not if you plan for them. And, like the item above notes, you can't rely on spaces anyway - eventually, someone converts them.

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I agree with Do Away With Tabs Altogether. I never input tabs because of my stupid InternetExplorer. And I'm so efficient (or lazy?) that I don't check I can't type tabs. Please ConvertSpacesToTabs for me when I save. Many other WikiClones don't rely on tabs any more. It is a tread, use spaces instead of tabs. -- TakuyaMurata

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Some browser editors seem to convert tabs into spaces, others spaces into tabs, and over time the more people that edit a page, the messier the alignment gets for anything that relies on text alignment because conversions keep going back and forth (or at least different conventions are on when visually editing). The only semi-solution I have found is to not have any spaces in the middle of a line. You can replace all spaces with periods or underlines, for example. However, this looks ugly and is a bit hard to read.

The best wiki "fix" I can think of is to have some convention for representing spaces instead of actually including spaces. But, WYSIWYG is out the window unless the server immediately converts to the special notation right after the first save. Example:

Original:

   Product  Amount

   Cups     23.19
   Piza     30.00
   knife    04.38

Converted:

   Product[\space:2]Amount

   Cups[\space:5]23.19
   Piza[\space:5]30.00
   knife[\space:4]04.38

There are no longer any spaces inside the content. Thus, there is no reason for any editor to stick tabs in between. Perhaps they may put tabs on the left, but the alignment should still be consistent for each line. The wiki server can make this translation upon the first save.

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See also: TabMunging