I almost always use the Insert spaces instead of tabs feature in gedit. The one exception is when writing a Makefile which requires tabs. I don't suppose there is a way to make this option dependent on the syntax being used? I.e. automatically switch back to tabs when Makefile is detected.
Gedit: tabs or spaces dependent on syntax
geditmake
Related Solutions
- GtkSourceView is a portable C library which supports configurable syntax highlighting in gedit.
- Create an xml file with custom syntax highlighting for the language.
Save it in /usr/share/gtksourceview*/language-specs as language_name.lang
Refer Language Definition v2.0 Reference for help with syntax highlighting.
Pluma is a Gedit fork without client-side decorations, which means it includes the usual the window borders and title bar.
# apt-get install pluma
Below is a screenshot with the window manager Blackbox.
Best Answer
There seems to be several ways to handle this.
Modelines
gedit has a modeline plugin. If you enable it you can use the Emacs modeline option
Indent-tabs-mode(or any other supported modeline option with the same effect). By setting that option to true you can make gedit indent with tabs for the file in question. So, to enable tab indentation in a Makefile add the following line to it:Makefiletab
There is a gedit plugin named Makefiletab which is said to "force the option spaces-instead-of-tabs off for all Makefiles." I do not know if it works though as I haven not tried it.