Q50588: Controlling the Use of Tabs in the Microsoft Editor

Article: Q50588
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.00 1.02 | 1.00 1.02
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 30-NOV-1989

The Microsoft Editor (M) provides the following two ways of using tab
characters:

1. Treat tabs as real characters.

2. Convert each tab into a series of spaces. This is controlled
through the use of the "realtabs" switch. Other switches may also
effect the way tabs appear to be handled by the editor.

The following chart, taken from Section 7.2.6 of "Microsoft Editor for
MS OS/2 and MS-DOS User's Guide" describes the switches dealing with
tabs.

1. realtabs

   On by default, controls whether or not tabs are treated as real tab
   characters.

2. entab

   Controls the extent to which the editor converts a series of tabs
   and spaces to tabs when saving a file. The following are the valid
   choices:

      0 - The editor does not replace spaces by tabs. If realtabs is off,
          tabs are converted to spaces.

      1 - (default) The editor can replace a series of tabs and spaces by
          tabs when the tabs fall outside of quoted strings.

      2 - The editor will replace all series of tabs and spaces with
          tabs.

   Note: The entab switch only effects the lines you modify during the
   current editing session.

3. filetab

   Controls the meaning of tab characters on a disk file. If realtabs
   is on, the filetab switch determines tab alignment. If realtabs is
   off, the filetab switch determines how the editor translates tab
   characters to spaces when a line of text is modified.

   If entab, as described above, is set to 1 or 2, filetab also
   determines how the editor translates spaces to tabs when you save
   the file to disk.

   Note: The filetab switch only effects the lines you modify during
   the current editing session.

4. tabalign

   When off (the default), the cursor may be placed anywhere inside a
   column of a tab character. If turned on, along with realtabs, the
   cursor is placed to the first column position of tab characters.

5. tabstops

   Determines the size of columns associated with the TAB and BACKTAB
   ( SHIFT+TAB) keys. This only moves the cursor and has no effect on
   the actual tab character. The default value is 4.

   The following example sets up tabs so that they act the same way
   they do in other editors, such as QuickC or Word:

      realtabs:yes
      tabalign:yes
      graphic:tab
      trailspace:yes
      filetab:4

The trailspace switch is needed to use tabs on blank lines. The
tabdisp switch may also be used with realtabs to make the tab
characters visible on the screen.

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