(g77.info) Tabs

 
 Tabs
 ----
 
    A source line with a <TAB> character anywhere in it is treated as
 entirely significant--however long it is--instead of ending in column
 72 (for fixed-form source) or 132 (for free-form source).  This also is
 different from `f2c', which encodes tabs as `\t' (the ASCII <TAB>
 character) inside character and Hollerith constants, but nevertheless
 seems to treat the column position as if it had been affected by the
 canonical tab positioning.
 
    `g77' effectively translates tabs to the appropriate number of
 spaces (a la the default for the UNIX `expand' command) before doing
 any other processing, other than (currently) noting whether a tab was
 found on a line and using this information to decide how to interpret
 the length of the line and continued constants.
 
    Note that this default behavior probably will change for version 0.6,
 when it will presumably be available via a command-line option.  The
 default as of version 0.6 is planned to be a "pure visual" model, where
 tabs are immediately converted to spaces and otherwise have no effect,
 so the way a typical user sees source lines produces a consistent
 result no matter how the spacing in those source lines is actually
 implemented via tabs, spaces, and trailing tabs/spaces before newline.
 Command-line options are likely to be added to specify whether all or
 just-tabbed lines are to be extended to 132 or full input-line length,
 and perhaps even an option will be added to specify the truncated-line
 behavior to which some Digital compilers default (and which affects the
 way continued character/Hollerith constants are interpreted).
Info Catalog
(g77.info) Carriage Returns
(g77.info) Source Form
(g77.info) Short Lines
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