The editor has tab stops set every four columns with the first tab set on column five. Typing the tab key will enter a tab character at your active cursor. When displayed on your screen the tab character will be expanded into the necessary number of spaces to move to the next tab stop. Try inserting a few tabs into your text. You can display the tab character as a right triangle by turning on option tabs (ot+). By also turning on option blank (ob+), padding spaces will be displayed as small centered dots since they do not exist within your text.
Tabs are not treated with any special significance internally. They only affect your display and cursor movement on the display. You can not position your cursor on the padding spaces following a tab, only on the tab character itself or the first real character following it.
The use of tabs rather than spaces for indentation in structured languages can save considerable typing and file space storage on your diskette.
You can change your tab settings by using the View Tab command. On the command line type:
| Command | gives |
|---|---|
| vt2 | Tabs every 2 columns |
| vt4 | Tabs every 4 columns |
| vt8 | Tabs every 8 columns |