| SimCon Home | Reference Manual Home |

REMOVE EMBEDDED TABS

Syntax:

[DO NOT] REMOVE EMBEDDED TABS KEEP EMBEDDED TABS

Function:

Systematically removes tab characters between tokens within lines of code. The tabs may or may not be replaced by spaces, depending on the SPACE BEFORE and SPACE AFTER settings.

This command does NOT change the treatment of leading tab characters, or of tab characters between a statement label and the statement itself. Leading tab characters may be used to delimit the label field from the code or to introduce a continuation line. If leading tab characters are to be replaced, they must be replaced by the appropriate number of spaces. The treatment of leading tab characters is controlled by the commands TAB FORMAT OUTPUT and NO TAB FORMAT OUTPUT.

By default, tab characters are left in the code, and may be used to format code lines. Note, however, that the tab is not part of the Fortran 77 character set, and a compiler with a strict interpretation of Fortran 77 could reject the code.

FPT computes the length of an output code line with the assumption that the tab stops are set at 8 character intervals, and generates continuation lines automatically where appropriate. Some compilers (e.g. VMS) treat tab characters as one character wide, and therefore accept code lines which extend beyond printer column 72 in fixed format. The appearance of code which contains tabs may therefore be changed by FPT even when tabs are not removed.

Tab characters between tokens after the label field may be replaced by spaces by the command CHANGE EMBEDDED TABS TO SPACES. Once again, the tab stops are assumed to be at 8 character intervals, and continuation lines are generated automatically after column 72 in fixed format and after the user-specified column number in free format.

Where to use this command:

Operating system command line	Yes
Configuration file, config.fsp	Yes
Specification (FSP) files, *.fsp	Yes
Interactively, to FPT> prompt:	Yes
Interactive command files	Yes
Embedded in the Fortran code	Yes

Default:

Tab characters are retained by default.

See also:

[NO] TAB FORMAT OUTPUT

CHANGE EMBEDDED TABS TO SPACES

SPACE BEFORE

SPACE AFTER