[Haskell] Re: Use of tab characters in indentation-sensitive code

[David Bergman]

Sean wrote: 

> Joking aside, surely you intelligent people realize that the internals 
> of a file format have nothing whatsoever to do with the user interface 
> of the editing tool.  Something like this would be completely 
> transparent *if* you used the right tools.

But then you would be forced to use exactly those tools and/or that
development platform. I have programmed in languages that extend beyond
ASCII (most modern languages actually do, but that is another story.) One of
these languages is APL or, more specifically, A+.

Not a nice experience, and that is "just" an extension w.r.t. character
table used. Once you leave the sheltered environment of a properly set up
Emacs with proper fonts installed, it all looks like random junk.
 
> This just shows how deeply ingrained the ascii plain text mindset is 
> in the programming community.  I don't expect anything like this to 
> ever fly, for this reason.  You guys won't let it.  :(

We guys try and some of us have used non-alphanumeric symbols, but they do
not add much, unless one leaves the linear realm of text completely and
enters the world of diagrammatic notations.
 
> Besides, the idea would be not to use &nbsp, but rather some "indent 
> paragraph" tag.

That would hardly make it more tractable outside the sheltered "Tag Editor,"
would it?

foo bar = case bar of
<indent />Zot x -&gt; ...
<indent />Pleb -&gt; ...

/David