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: 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