Re: I don't quite understand this exercise...

Gordon Burditt wrote:
Ok, thanks, and everyone else. So what you're saying is, they want me to ask the user/get and set a variable, say n, and replace all tabs with n spaces, and they don't want me to calculate the number of spaces a tab takes up on the system? 

How can you possibly calculate the number of spaces a tab takes up
on the system?  (Isn't this a little like calculating the color of
the nail polish on THE thumb of THE human?) It could be that there
are many different terminals and printers, all with different tab
stop settings, and in any case, there's no portable way to read the
location of the cursor after sending a tab.

There are some conventions where a file is labelled with the number
of spaces a tab should take up while editing it with vi, but that's
hardly universal (and using it tends to be a security hole).  I've
seen only a very few files actually using such labelling.  Some
files have comments like "view me with 4 space tabs".  It is often
the case that even the files in the same directory are not consistent
among themselves.

Gordon L. Burditt

Yes, you do have a point there... :D But there could possibly be a way, I just wasn't sure if that's what they wanted me to do; you never know. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

--
Patrick M.
/* EOF */
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I dont quite understand this exercise...
    ... So what you're saying is, ... >ask the user/get and set a variable, say n, and replace all tabs with n ... How can you possibly calculate the number of spaces a tab takes up ... seen only a very few files actually using such labelling. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: I dont quite understand this exercise...
    ... >ask the user/get and set a variable, say n, and replace all tabs with n ... A text file containing some tab characters. ... if N is 4 and the original file is: ... int jj = 0; ...
    (comp.lang.c)