Working with spaces as if they were tabs

[jumpfroggy]

Tabs vs. Spaces is always a hot issue. I wish it were possible to work with existing spaces as if they were tabs.

So if I open a file that used spaces for all indenting, I could still use them as if they were tabs (using the specified number of spaces in the preferences). So if the following text were there:

Code: Select all

if something then
    do this
end if

Then the spaces before "do this" would be spaces in the file, but a tab on my screen. It would behave as one character (moving with cursor, deleting, etc), and when it saves it would be 4 spaces again.

As a nifty bonus, if you start on the beginning of the line and press the space bar 4 times, it could (or not, depending on what people want) become a tab automatically.

It would complement the existing preferences... right now it's:
Convert new tabs to spaces
Convert existing tabs to spaces when saving

Just add the following:
Convert leading spaces to tabs when loading
Convert leading spaces to tabs while typing

Then everyone's happy. Any thoughts? Any possibility of this going in? It seems like a perfect compromise, but if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them.

[tygrus78]

The other option would be to treat multiple spaces as indentation while editing. The kb navigation (arrow keys) would skip over the existing multiple spaces as if they were tabs and add spaces as defined by the preferences instead of tab. This is done dynamically and would not destroy embeded formating where spaces or tabs were explicitly chosen.

[jumpfroggy]

That would be incredibly convenient. Then I wouldn't care what format the file is in, and I could edit how I want to.

All this seems a moot point... I've never seen anyone from Textpad post in any of these threads, and I've seen bugs in TP exist for years across multiple versions. It seems like they've stabilized it and forgotten about it. Anyone else feel this way? No really interesting/helpful new features in quite a while, and it doesn't seem like they're ramping up for anything big. Has anyone found a good replacement? Even one with less features, but more development behind it?