Nobody talks about the real reason to use Tabs over Spaces

Brief

Posted as it is from Reddit Post

i've been slightly dismayed, that in every tabs-vs-spaces debate i can find on the web, nobody is talking about the accessibility consequences for the visually impaired

let me illustrate with a quick story, why i irrevocably turned from a spaces to tabs guy

• i recently worked at a company that used tabs
• i created a new repository, and thought i was being hip and modern, so i started to evangelize spaces for the 'consistency across environments'
• i get approached by not one, but TWO coworkers who unfortunately are highly visually impaired,

  and each has a different visual impairment
  • one of them uses tab-width 1 because he uses such a gigantic font-size
  • the other uses tab-width 8 and a really wide monitor
  • these guys have serious problems using codebases with spaces, they have to convert, do their work, and then unconvert before committing
  • these guys are not just being fussy — it's almost surprising they can code at all, it's kind of sad to watch but also inspiring
• at that moment, i instantaneously conceded — there's just no counter-argument that even comes close to outweighing the accessibility needs of valued coworkers
• 'consistency across environments' is exactly the problem for these guys, they have different needs
• just think of how rude and callous it would be to overrule these fellas needs for my precious "consistency when i post on stack overflow"
• so what would you do, spaces people, if you were in charge? overrule their pleas?

from that moment onward, i couldn't imagine writing code in spaces under the presumption that "nobody with visual impairment will ever need to work with this code, probably", it's just a ridiculous way to think, especially in open-source

i'll admit though, it's a pain posting tabs online and it gets bloated out with an unsightly default 8 tab-width — however, can't we see clearly that this is a deficiency with websites like github and stackoverflow and reddit here, where viewers are not easily able to configure their own preferred viewing tab-width? websites and web-apps obviously have the ability to set their own tab width via css, and so ultimately, aren't we all making our codebases worse as a workaround for the deficiencies in these websites we enjoy? why are these code-viewing apps missing basic code-viewing features?

in the tabs-vs-spaces debate, i see people saying "tabs lets us customize our tab-width", as though we do this "for fun" — but this is about meeting the real needs of real people who have real impairments — how is this not seen as a simple cut-and-dry accessibility issue?

i don't find this argument in online debates, and wanted to post there here out in the blue as a feeler, before i start ranting like this to my next group of coworkers ;)

is there really any reason, in favor of spaces, that counter balances the negative consequences for the visually impaired?

cheers friends,

👋 Chase