Hi, sorry for bringing up such a "trivial" thing as the correct tab size in source code. It seems that originally the source uses 4-character indents but 8-character tabs, but it seems that later source uses 4-character tabs. People don't seem to realize this, and as a result some files (e.g., returns.pl) have ended up in a messy state where some tabs are 4-character but some 8-character, so the source looks wrong no matter whether I set the tab size to 4 or 8 characters. Would someone second me in setting a standard tab size? So that all tabs would either mean 4 or 8 spaces. (Personally, I like 8-character tabs more, since the code will look right when I "less" (or even "cat") it in an xterm.) My rationale of standardizing the tab size are the following: 1. When the tab size is inconsistent, the code is difficult to read. There are a couple of bugs that I feel are very likely to be the result of having a difficulty in reading the code (in particular inconsistent indentation); i.e., IMHO, an inconsistent tab size is detrimental to our goal of making Koha stable. 2. Sometimes, to debug a problem you need to reformat the source to a consistent indentation. If the apparently-inconsistent indentation is actually consistent when a different tab size is used, effort is wasted and useless check-ins result. 3. It is a nuisance to constantly switch tab sizes editing different files (unless one use emacs, but the Koha source is not set up with emacs Local variables). 4. When the tab size is inconsistent, the code looks uglier than it really is. Someone (I forgot which developer) mentioned something to the effect that Koha code looks sort of ugly. I think ugly code would turn off people who wants to join the programming effort. I hope I haven't offended anyone; I just wish to avoid having different files having different tab sizes, or, worse, the same file having different tab sizes in different places. Best regards, -- Ambrose LI Cheuk-Wing <a.c.li@ieee.org>