Question

I’m currently collaborating with a colleague on a project and we both use Vim to code.
However I’ve noticed that my code does not align the same way as his does and this causes some extra work on his part to re-indent the code.

So I turn on :set list to see to see the differences in tab space marked with (^I) and line endings marked with $.

For some reason when I type in (:list) mode my text does not indent or even show traces of tab markers (^I) similarly to his code. Why is this?

Here’s an example of what I mean:

^I^I$this->greeting('Hello world');$

Whilst my code would show up like this in the same file:

        $this->reply('Hello you');$

Notice the uneven space?

These are my vimrc settings:

set expandtab
set softtabstop = 4
set tabstop = 4
set shiftwidth = 4

I hope I’m on the right track, there may be some other problem that I haven’t considered. Please do share your knowledge on the matter.

Sincerely,
Why

Answer 1

set expandtab means that typed tabs become spaces. This is fine, as long as you both agree on what a tab is; chances are they’re using the Unix- (and, I think for historical reasons, vim-) default set tabstop=8.