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Apr 18, 2019
Elastic tabstops
I recently found out about elastic tabstops 13 years too late.
Wait for the gif to move:
![columnblocks_coloured[1].gif](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1555593828122/lfqls1VH3.gif)
Essentially, a tab creates a column with a minimum width, but that grows if one of the lines has more text in the column.
I thought it was really cool and could put the 'tabs vs spaces' debate to rest. Curious what y'all think.
One huge downside is that everyone in a project has to use it for it to work (which includes having an editor that supports it).
Sébastien Portebois
Software architect at Ubisoft
I really like it, when it’s built-in.
go fmt(which could be usually done automatically when you save your file) orterraform fmtthings are aligned like this. I find it so easy to read. And indeed is changes space to tabs and tabs to space, but nobody cares because the tool does it for you (e.g. if you prefer to type spaces, or tabs, just do it, it’s going to be replaced by the common format anyway)