Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:8137 comp.bugs.misc:135
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!skep2!wcs
From: wcs@skep2.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart.[ho95c])
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.bugs.misc
Subject: Re: Tabs in VI
Message-ID: <190@skep2.ATT.COM>
Date: 12 Jul 88 04:53:54 GMT
References: <399@cb.ecn.purdue.edu> <177@skep2.ATT.COM> <4885@teddy.UUCP>
Reply-To: wcs@skep2.UUCP (46323-Bill.Stewart.[ho95c],2G218,x0705,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs Center 4632, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 16

In article <4885@teddy.UUCP> jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson) writes:
} > Bill Stewart writes:
} >>	:set tabstop=0
} >>will let you do autoindent without tabs.  Already tabbed text seems to
} At least with BSD versions of "vi", a :set tabstop=0 is IDENTICAL to
} :set tabstop=8.  After setting the tabstop to zero, tabs are 8 long,

Arrgh, sure enough!  I use vi version 3.9 (found in SVR2 and following),
but I scrounged up a 3.7 version (4.*BSD, V8, V9, SVR0, etc.) and it
did what John claimed.  As long as you detab the document first, you
can use :set tabstop=99 to make tabstops big enough vi doesn't use them
(assuming you don't want to use the TAB key to indent with.)  Or you
can pipe your file through col -x to zap tabs afterwards.
-- 
#				Thanks;
#Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G218 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs