Source Code without Tabs is Superior to Source Code with Tabs

My argument isn't a red herring rather it's a semantic point as to what you mean by superior. Clearly code that gets you paid should and could be easily seen as superior to code that does not. Unreadable code is not necessarily a bad thing. I have backed this point up with references to articles and books by programmers suggesting exactly what I am suggesting. In this job market, anything you can do to keep your job is clearly superior. Our argument is on the superiority of code and morality does not play a part. It does not follow that my argument should be ignored because it assumes what has demonstratively been happening. 1) You should write code that only you can maintain. 2) Your job will not be outsourced if only you can maintain code. 3) This has nothing to do with morality but rather the superiority of code. You are arguing that: 1) Outsourcing is immoral. 2) Therefore we should assume that outsourcing doesn't occur. 3) Therefore my argument is void. What? Outsourcing isn't immoral, outsourcing does occur, and it has no bearing on the argument. Your company can save money by having other people maintain your code. If other people can't maintain your code then you get to keep your job. ---- My opponent has clearly never written COBOL. The job security is largely because COBOL is an awful language that takes a lot to learn and pretty well ruins good programmers. It's effectively an unmaintainable mess and a pain in the butt. On top of that the subsection in the system cannot be replaced because it's all based on mainframes. You have cited no sources and the fact that Slashdot.org is a collection of submitted entries by knowledgeable programmers, and therefore a bad source, is absurd. It simply references to another page on the topic. It's a link to a link. --- "The best part of my opponent's second round is the additional argument regarding the Whitespace language. My opponent suggests that since I did not specify a language, I must have been talking about the Whitespace language. This is a blatant straw man attempt. Since he cannot defeat my arguments using sound reason, he modifies the debate parameters as to avoid my arguments altogether." In the programming language Whitespace tabs are required to make the code produce anything at all. Clearly functional code can be seen as superior to non-functioning code and therefore by that argument, in parallel to my other various arguments, I succeed. The programming language was clearly left vague and as such it is entirely within my purview to offer a language where source code without tabs is significantly inferior to those with tabs. My citation of whitespace was meant to function in independent of my argument on the subject of readability. ---- 1) Source Code without any readability allows you to maintain your job, tabs are superior. 2) Whitespace code will not even function without tabs, tabs are superior. 3) Tabs are more convenient than spaces, tabs are superior. While some editors can do the same thing as tabs with spaces it doesn't suggest any superiority in formatting. I write code in wordpad from time to time and it doesn't have the function my opponent suggests. Some editors being able to work around deficits do not imply those deficits do not exist. I could also use tabs throughout my source code and simply to a regex replace of any tab with 4 spaces on the finished source code. That too would not make it remotely superior. Tabs work fine. Whether it's creating functional code that cannot work without tabs or making your code insure you'll have a job for years to come. Tabs are superior.