Question

I am using Emacs with php-mode.el: http://php-mode.sourceforge.net/php-mode.el.html

I have the following lines in my .emacs file:

(load-file "~/.emacs.d/php-mode.el")
(require 'php-mode)
(setq c-default-style "linux" c-basic-offset 4)

It is working really nicely for the most part. The issue is that for certain bits of code Emacs displays the code differently to other editors. For example, I have the following code in Emacs:

public function showStuff($items, $Stuff) {
    $restrict = true;
    $stuff  = false;
    $moreStuff = true;

    if (($restrict && $stuff >= $moreStuff) 
        || ( $moreStuff > 10)) {
        return true;
    }           
    return false;
}

But viewing the same file in Eclipse/Sublime Text/Text Wrangler looks like:

public function showStuff($items, $Stuff) {
    $restrict = true;
    $stuff  = false;
    $moreStuff = true;

    if (($restrict && $stuff >= $moreStuff) 
    || ( $moreStuff > 10)) {
    return true;
    }           
    return false;
}

Can anyone comment on why I am seeing these results and a possible solution?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As it seems you want to use spaces rather than tabs, I think this is basically a duplicate of:

I can't find this: How do I use 4 SPACES instead of a TAB in EMACS?

Or if you wanted this only for PHP files, then you would use:

(add-hook 'php-mode-hook 'my-php-mode-hook)
(defun my-php-mode-hook ()
  "My PHP mode configuration."
  (setq indent-tabs-mode nil
        tab-width 4
        c-basic-offset 4))

Before that, with the code looking correct in Emacs, convert the tabs to spaces with:

• C-xh
• M-x untabify RET

I would also take a look at:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CategoryIndentation

(or take note of it, at least — indentation can be trickier than expected in Emacs, and there’s lots of good information there.)