Vi and tabs (RTFM?)

[Brian V. Smith]

In article <4732 at alvin.mcnc.org>, spl at mcnc.org (Steve Lamont) writes:

> What is the magic set of incantations to stop vi from inserting
> gratutious (at least from my perspective) tabs in text while doing
> autoindent?  F'rinstance if I type something like
> 
> 	function( parameter1,
> 		  parameter2,
> 		  parameter3 );
> 
> vi very 'helpfully' will stick a tab and some spaces before the string
> 'parameter3.'  I would prefer spaces (humor me :-) ).
> 
> As they say on the radio talk shows, "I'll take my answer on the air."
> That is, email will do just fine.

I just happened to be looking in the newsgroup 'comp.lang.fortran' 
(don't ask why) and I came across the following article:

< Article 1784 of comp.lang.fortran

< From: bobal at microsoft.UUCP (Bob Allison)
< Reply-To: bobal at microsoft.UUCP (Bob Allison (uunet!microsoft!bobal))
< Distribution: usa
< Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
< Lines: 39
< 
< Not that this has anything to do with FORTRAN, but for those of us
< who love autoindent, but don't like tabs, the appropriate vi setting is:
< 
< :set ai ts=90
< 
< This is great since it will autoindent, but it won't use a tab unless you're
< beyond the 90th column (I rarely write a line longer than 80 characters), so
< it just blank-fills.
< 

[stuff about Fortran 88 deleted ]

< Bob Allison
< uunet!microsoft!bobal


_____________________________________
Brian V. Smith    (bvsmith at lbl.gov)
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
We don't need no signatures!