From:	arg AT whangomatic DOT freeserve DOT co DOT uk (Andrew R. Gillett)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Why are tabs required in makefiles?
Date:	Fri, 23 Apr 1999 20:33:03 +0100
Organization:	www.release-dates.co.uk
Lines:	18
Message-ID:	<MPG.118ad914b4b4801298a9e6@news.freeserve.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	modem-116.name8.dialup.pol.co.uk
X-Trace:	news5.svr.pol.co.uk 924895986 8210 62.136.163.244 (23 Apr 1999 19:33:06 GMT)
NNTP-Posting-Date:	23 Apr 1999 19:33:06 GMT
X-Complaints-To:	abuse AT theplanet DOT net
X-Newsreader:	MicroPlanet Gravity v2.11
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

From the DJGPP Users Guide, makefiles section:

"Note that the line with gcc is prefixed by a tab - a real tab character, 
not eight spaces! Many DOS editors will insert eight spaces when you hit 
the TAB key, instead of just inserting a tab. If you get a "missing 
separator" error, that's what happened to you."

I use EDIT, the basic text editor which comes with DOS. This writes out 
several spaces when you press Tab. I had to use Windows Notepad to insert 
some actual tab characters into the makefile. I am just wondering why 
tabs are required at all, especially seeing how in most actual code it 
doesn't matter whether you indent things with tabs, spaces, or even 
nothing at all.

-- 
Andrew Gillett      http://argnet.fatal-design.com/     ICQ: See homepage
"Sir, sure am, sir." - Chelmer Monkton, Starship Losers

- Raw text -