TAB key to indent/insert tab character

[hongymagic]

Hi,

I have hacked up initial version of TAB insertion in my own fork (note: it's initial and does not support shift-tab combination yet).

I just wanted to start up a discussion around supporting TAB keys. The reason why I ask is because it has come to my attention that not everybody agrees with TAB key being used to indent; especially in the context of a webpage. So what do people think about adding support for TAB?

Ideally, in the context of an editor, I would use TAB key to indent selected lines or for (de)indentation. We can make use of tab-size CSS property to adjust tab-width.

[OscarGodson]

I for one love this idea. 👍

I wanted to get this in there eventually. I'm almost certain people will want to disable this tho for some reason or another. Why not just throw a smartTab option in there? smartTab could default to true and "smart" tab because it makes tabs work like a real text editor.

It'd also be super awesome if you could get it so it remembers the indentation of the last line. So, if the | is the cursor:

text...
    a tabbed line and I press enter the cursor ends up...
    |

Anyway, when you think you're ready send a pull! This is looking great. Curious, why are there a bunch of empty lines added/deleted?

[hongymagic]

As @OscarGodson said:

Why not just throw a smartTab option in there? smartTab could default to true and "smart" tab because it makes tabs work like a real text editor.

That is one way to handle differences I guess! I will gladly add another option smartTab.

It'd also be super awesome if you could get it so it remembers the indentation of the last line.

I agree this would good too. Will definitely take this into account.

Curious, why are there a bunch of empty lines added/deleted?

I noticed that too, I am assuming my vim settings didn't match EOL of the file. Don't worry, I will create a new branch and make sure current code/file formatting rules are followed.

Thanks!

[OscarGodson]

No worries! Was just curious. Do you think it should be plural or singular? smartTab or smartTabs? I'm leaning towards plural now that I say it out loud.

[hongymagic]

Do you think it should be plural or singular? smartTab or smartTabs?

smartTabs should do the trick =)

Curious, why are there a bunch of empty lines added/deleted?

It turns out, those lines that were deleted weren't entirely empty :) I've set my vim to remove any trailing spaces on save. Disabling it seems to leave those lines as-is.

[OscarGodson]

Oh, yeah, I see them too in my vim (they're highlighted red) its cool to
strip them out. No worries.

On Friday, July 20, 2012, David Hong wrote:

Do you think it should be plural or singular? smartTab or smartTabs?

smartTabs should do the trick =)

Curious, why are there a bunch of empty lines added/deleted?

It turns out, those lines that were deleted weren't entirely empty :) I've
set my vim to remove any trailing spaces on save. Disabling it seems to
leave those lines as-is.

---

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#159 (comment)

[doginthehat]

+1 gimme tabs!

(it's the first thing I tried in the editor and was a tad disappointed it didn't work)

[OscarGodson]

@doginthehat Yep. I want it to. I write lots of code docs so it kinda sucks not having the feature. I've just never gotten to it because the normal end user probably wont ever use the feature since it'll mostly be used in CMSs. But, yes, @hongymagic magic seems to be on it ;)

[doginthehat]

Cool. Maybe @hongymagic could submit a pull request?

[OscarGodson]

Yeah that's what he's working towards. He has 3 feature branches already and committing code! 👍

[vjpr]

+1

[tonytonyjan]

+1

[hellerbarde]

What's the status on this? Can I help? I'd love to help with this whole Tab thing. (@hongymagic didnt have an issuetracker)

[OscarGodson]

@hellerbarde Sure, I'm not actively working on this problem and @hongymagic gave me a pull request that I'm still testing for something unrelated so, if you want, go ahead and send me a pull request!

[hellerbarde]

arright. i'll see what I can do. :)