YAML should not support tabs.

[bartoszbinda]

According to this: https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2777534
`In YAML block styles, structure is determined by indentation. In general, indentation is defined as a zero or more space characters at the start of a line.

To maintain portability, tab characters must not be used in indentation, since different systems treat tabs differently. Note that most modern editors may be configured so that pressing the tab key results in the insertion of an appropriate number of spaces.

The amount of indentation is a presentation detail and must not be used to convey content information.

Each node must be indented further than its parent node. All sibling nodes must use the exact same indentation level. However the content of each sibling node may be further indented independently..`
Wild web developer allows us to use YAML files with tabs.
https://imgur.com/58hVbWM
Is there any change to do in generic editor to allows convering tabs to space?

[mickaelistria]

Thanks.
Unfortunately at the moment, Eclipse IDE doesn't allow us to set formatting preferences per language (they're global). There is a bug open on that topic, but it's a bit stalled as there is no easy way to introduce and present such file-specific customization without adding a lot of confusion to extenders and users.
Pragmatically, I think this kind of issue could happen with any editor, so maybe it's worth having this as an auto-edit from the language server which would turn tabs into spaces whenever document changes.

[mickaelistria]

I opened redhat-developer/yaml-language-server#244 to have the LS providing this.

[bartoszbinda]

Could we use this class: org.eclipse.jface.text.TabsToSpacesConverter and extension-point org.eclipse.ui.genericeditor.autoEditStrategies?

[mickaelistria]

Could we use this class: org.eclipse.jface.text.TabsToSpacesConverter and extension-point org.eclipse.ui.genericeditor.autoEditStrategies?

We could but that would be suboptimal. The requirement to avoid spaces is true for all YAML files in any IDE, so it's better if it's directly handled by the language server, which does contain the language logic and is reusable across IDEs.
We don't want Wild Web Developer to hold to much knowledge and logic about the language, it's better to have it directing enhancement to the most relevant places.

[bartoszbinda]

I have managed to use that class as above to replace tabs with spaces although it does not work when I select some text and then press tab. Is there an other mechanism for that?

[apupier]

upstream issue has been closed: redhat-developer/yaml-language-server#244
Is therestill something to do on Wild Web Developer side?

[mickaelistria]

Is therestill something to do on Wild Web Developer side?

I believe we need Wild Web Developer to enable it explicitly https://github.com/redhat-developer/yaml-language-server/blob/04bfdccaada7724469c76e3319a26d0a4b096de6/src/yamlSettings.ts#L29 in the LS settings

[mickaelistria]

See also redhat-developer/yaml-language-server#396 (comment)
However, note that the codeAction to "fix" tabs to spaces should already be working.

[mickaelistria]

This is basically blocked by redhat-developer/yaml-language-server#396 on LS side and https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=537154 on client side.