How to set tab as space

[jkmpariab]

Is there any way to customize tab size just as :indent-style INTEGER does in command console on config/languages file?

Documentation suggest setting indent key for [[language]] as this:

indent = { tab-width = INTEGER, unit = "STRING" }

By playing some time found out the unit field does not have any affect on tab behaviour.
and tab-width is the one that just set tab size as its name implies.

BTW by setting tab-width = 0 helix do panic

[kirawi]

tab-width changes the size of the rendered tab (\t), while unit is what is inserted when you try to indent.
e.g.
unit = "\t" will insert a tab
unit = " " will insert 4 spaces (github is rendering it weird, but there are four space characters inside the quotes)

[kirawi]

There isn't. I'm still confused as to what you're considering a bug. In the asciinema, it correctly inserts the spaces according to the desired length. Regardless of whether you press tab or >, it will insert the same characters (just the location is different).

[jkmpariab]

On pressing backspace it clear all of the spaces?
So that's the bug!

[kirawi]

Ah, that's an intended feature to auto-dedent upon backspace. If you want to disable it you'll have to delete these lines:

helix/helix-term/src/commands.rs

Lines 2949 to 2992 in 94fc41a

	if !fragment.is_empty() && fragment.chars().all(|ch| ch.is_whitespace()) {
	if text.get_char(pos.saturating_sub(1)) == Some('\t') {
	// fast path, delete one char
	(
	graphemes::nth_prev_grapheme_boundary(text, pos, 1),
	pos,
	None,
	)
	} else {
	let unit_len = indent_unit.chars().count();
	// NOTE: indent_unit always contains 'only spaces' or 'only tab' according to `IndentStyle` definition.
	let unit_size = if indent_unit.starts_with('\t') {
	tab_size * unit_len
	} else {
	unit_len
	};
	let width: usize = fragment
	.chars()
	.map(|ch| {
	if ch == '\t' {
	tab_size
	} else {
	// it can be none if it still meet control characters other than '\t'
	// here just set the width to 1 (or some value better?).
	ch.width().unwrap_or(1)
	}
	})
	.sum();
	let mut drop = width % unit_size; // round down to nearest unit
	if drop == 0 {
	drop = unit_size
	}; // if it's already at a unit, consume a whole unit
	let mut chars = fragment.chars().rev();
	let mut start = pos;
	for _ in 0..drop {
	// delete up to `drop` spaces
	match chars.next() {
	Some(' ') => start -= 1,
	_ => break,
	}
	}
	(start, pos, None) // delete!
	}
	} else {

and compile.

You can create an issue for a configuration option for it.

[jkmpariab]

Ok i found out that the behavior is normal as on vscode too but not on gnome gedit.
So i think that is not a big deal as i thought before.
Thanks for your help!

[goyalyashpal]

On pressing backspace it clear all of the spaces?
So that's the bug!

that is why u (should) enable "render whitespace" lol.

[giancarlocp]

How to set tab behavior globally?