- Linus Torvalds added hidden tabs to Kconfig to challenge parsers that can’t handle them.
- Tabs were intentionally added to the common Kconfig file for page sizes to expose faulty parsers.
- Torvalds believes parsers unable to handle tabs shouldn’t be parsing kernel Kconfig files, aiming to force fixes.
Why would anyone NOT parse a tab as whitespace? Like, python really wants you to use spaces but will still let you use tabs if you are consistent.
There’s the .tsv format too.
Even then, unless for some reason you code on paper, there is not excuse to not have a formatter, that enforces one style, or the other