tabs in diffs (was: add MR_virtual_hp, etc.)

[Fergus Henderson]

On 08-May-1998, Andrew Bromage <bromage at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> G'day all.
> 
> Fergus Henderson wrote:
> 
> > The tabs are OK if you take out the `+' inserted by diff.
> >  
> > (Perhaps we should use `diff --initial-tab', so that the tabs line up
> > properly in the diffs; but the initial tab takes up an extra 7
> > characters, which would mean that a lot more lines in the diff would
> > wrap, which can be equally confusing.)
> 
> I think that `diff --expand-tabs' (same as `diff -t') might be a better
> option.  The diffs will take up more bytes, but fewer lines will wrap.
> Of course, this will make applying posted diffs as patches harder.

Not that much harder -- we should be able to just use
`patch --ignore-whitespace'.

OK, you've convined me -- I think we should make `diff -u -t'
be the standard diff format, i.e. we should all put the line

	diff -u -t

in our ~/.cvsrc files.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.