Item: “It’s like a programming thing, where um, instead of putting in a tab, right? You want to put in two spaces. That’s good programming practice. It’s because tabs get interpreted differently on different systems so a tab on one system might turn into four spaces, or two spaces, or six spaces.”
General Information about Item:
- Customary Folklore: ritual
- English
- USA
Informant Data:
Charley Ren is a 20 year old Asian male Dartmouth CS Major, who lived in the Midwest until he was 12, when he moved to Connecticut.
Contextual Data:
Charley first learned about it from programmers at Facebook who he overheard discussing it. The ritual/piece of knowledge applies when he is with other people who are particular about programming practices. This folklore defines a bit of a division within programmers, as some prefer spaces in their code while some prefer tabs.
Transcript of Associated File:
Informant’s Comments:
Another similar ritual is how some people prefer using shift or caps lock all the time. This shows a bit of a division within programmers, as some prefer spaces in their code while some prefer tabs.
Collector’s Comments:
This can be classified as customary folklore. It is a ritual practice that programmers keep in mind whenever they are doing their work, but it is something that most non-programmers would not be familiar with.
Tags/Keywords:
- spaces, tabs