Eclipse, GitHub - Text Format / Tab Indent Problem

Question

i'm using an Eclipse based editor (Flash Builder) to write my code. i want to use GitHub as a remote repository but there are formatting conflicts caused by the tab indents.

for example, in Flash Builder, i have written this:

case Boolean:       bytes.writeBoolean(value);          break;                  
case int:           bytes.writeInt(value);              break;
case uint:          bytes.writeUnsignedInt(value);      break;
case Number:        bytes.writeDouble(value);           break;
case ByteArray:     bytes.writeBytes(value);            break;
default:            bytes.writeUTFBytes(value);

but when that is sent to GitHub (or a plain text file), it is displayed something like this:

case Boolean:       bytes.writeBoolean(value);          break;
case int:                bytes.writeInt(value);                 break;
case uint:               bytes.writeUnsignedInt(value);     break;
case Number:        bytes.writeDouble(value);           break;
case ByteArray:     bytes.writeBytes(value);            break;
default:                 bytes.writeUTFBytes(value);

if i pull the repository from GitHub and open the files in the code editor, the format is still correct so it doesn't seem to change the format, rather it's displaying it incorrectly.

is this something that's possible to fix?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 17 '11 at 20:21

2

Sounds like you are using tabs as delimiter and different editors have different tab spaces. That is why I always use (4) spaces instead of tabs. You can configure Eclipse to always use spaces by checking:

Window->Preferences->General->Editors->Text Editors->Insert spaces for tabs

answered Jul 17 '11 at 20:21

Kristian

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Indeed, use tabs for indenting, not for alignment. – Tekkub Jul 17 '11 at 20:28
that was the first thing i tried. i just retried it but it still doesn't work for me. copying the code from the code editor to a plain text file still alters the format. – Chunky Chunk Jul 17 '11 at 20:36
ah, it seems this is a bug specific to Flash Builder: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6312864/flash-builder-4-spaces-instead-of-tabs – Chunky Chunk Jul 17 '11 at 20:40
Ahh. Glad you found the solution – Kristian Jul 17 '11 at 20:43

Eclipse, GitHub - Text Format / Tab Indent Problem

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