Description Scott Cytacki 2005-06-01 13:12:47 EDT

I would like a smarter tab policy.

In code formated like this:
class Example {
    Example(int arg1, int arg2,
            int arg3, int arg4,
            int arg5, int arg6) {
        this();
    }

    Example() {
    }
}

I would like to have a mix of tabs and spaces like this:
class Example {
<tb>Example(int arg1, int arg2,
<tb>        int arg3, int arg4,
<tb>        int arg5, int arg6) {
<tb><tb>this();
<tb>}

<tb>Example() {
<tb>}
}

If the code it is formated like this then it looks good whether a editor is
using 4 or 8 space tabs.  

I called this a smarter tab policy because it means the code that implements the
tab policy needs to know more than just a column number.  It needs an
indentation level and column offset.

This could be configured by setting the tab policy to "mixed" and then have a
check box that says "use spaces for column alignment"

Or it could be configured by a new tab policy called "portable mixed", and in
that case only the tab size field is needed.

On another note it is bad that the Constructor Declarations->parameters example
in the code formatting dialog uses the word "Example" which happens to be 8
chars.  So in "tab only" tab policy with tabs of 2,4, or 8, the example doesn't
show what will happen when "indent on column" is set. The method
declarations->parameters example makes this clear.