I have a MacOS devbox using Terminal running Python 3.10 that doesn't recognize the tab character as indentation. What is wrong? Is my Python misconfigured? Is this an Apple or zsh thing?
I also have a Raspberry Pi running Python 3.7.3 that behaves normally (tabs are recognized). What is the difference between them?
Strangely I searched extensively but found no mention of this problem.
MacBook Pro 14″
Gnarlodious wrote:
I guess I don't understand. I am using Xcode and in it tab characters are literally tabs, not spaces. It doesn't translate tabs into spaces.
Go to Xcode > Settings > Text Editing > Indentation and make sure "Prefer Indent Using" is set to "Space". Never use tabs. At best that will just annoy people when the tab setting-du-jour scrambles your code when some indents are 4 spaces and some are 4, 8-space tabs. It's an even bigger problem in Python where whitespace is significant.
I don't have any idle3 app, and there is no such app on the App Store. In the past I always used Terminal, and it recognized tabs as indentation. If I update to Python 3.12 do you think it will fix it? I would hate to have to change all my scripting to spaces indentation.
I eventually found python 3.12.0 installed at:
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin/python3
That's Apple's Python. It isn't meant for you to use. You should install your own Python. That way, if you want some cool new module, you can just install it. You don't want to have to constantly fight with Apple.
Python expects 4 space indents per PEP-8 Style Guide for Python Code. If you are using SSH into macOS from Raspberry PI, your tab size may not be set correctly in macOS.
Launch the Python idle3 application in the background. It will perform automatic indents where it needs to (e.g. inside a function or code block). Control+d will quit the idle3 app. I don't use this as a substitute for a proper syntax aware programmer's editor, but as a debugging tool for code that I incorporate into that editor.
idle3 2> /dev/null &
I never use Python interactively in the Terminal since idle3 fulfills that role, but the interactive Python 3.12 does understand tabs in the Sonoma 14.1.1 Terminal application. You enter it after the ellipsis (…) as shown below and an extra return to end the function definition:
Thank you! I tried the build installer but it errored and I couldn't figure it out so I deleted it. Then I downloaded the MacOS 64 bit installer and ran it. I eventually found python 3.12.0 installed at:
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin/python3
And yes, it does recognize tabs as indents!
Sounds like a Python problem. You can't change your indentation style in Python. If you indent one line 4 spaces, you have to keep indenting 4 spaces. You can't switch to tabs. It will just get confused. Same in reverse.
I recommend looking at your source file in BBEdit with invisibles turned on. You should be able to see where the whitespace style is changing.
Note that I despise Python. All of the above may or may not be correct.
Sublime Text is an open-ended trial that periodically will ask you to purchase it, but otherwise you can continue to use it. I finally paid for it after using it for years. If you evaluate it, you will want to install the complementary package manager too.
It takes TextMate theme bundles too.
One of the obscure tools in the Python.org 3.11 or later distribution (it may be in earlier versions) is the script reindent.py that standardizes tabs and space indents in code that may be messed up. It has well documented.
cp share/doc/python3.11/examples/Tools/scripts/reindent.py ~/bin
./reindent.py -h
I guess I don't understand. I am using Xcode and in it tab characters are literally tabs, not spaces. It doesn't translate tabs into spaces.
I don't have any idle3 app, and there is no such app on the App Store. In the past I always used Terminal, and it recognized tabs as indentation. If I update to Python 3.12 do you think it will fix it? I would hate to have to change all my scripting to spaces indentation.
You are welcome.
Personally, I have Xcode 15.0.1 installed, but do all of my coding from the command-line using sublime text 4. That programmer's editor is Python syntax aware and expands tabs to 4 spaces and detects Python3 syntax errors with optional plug-ins.
However, that said, the built-in editor in Xcode has the following Settings for Editing:
Alternatively… Xcode doesn’t have Python support AFAIK. You might as well be editing FORTRAN, for what language-sensitive assistance is available. You can get that to mostly work, but you’ll probably need to set the indent to use spaces everywhere, and Xcode permits that in Settings > Text Editing > Indentation
Thanks for that, I have the same settings! My detail coding I do in the CLI also, but in addition to Xcode which is good for large-scale organization I use https://github.com/coteditor for my lightweight Python editor. All my output is HTML webapp. Ill look into Sublime, it might be an improvement.
VikingOSX wrote:
And here I was led to believe you hated AppleScript. Now, its become a hierarchy, probably with homebrew at the top… 😉
Always has been a hierarchy. I hate AppleScript, but I merely despise Python. There's a difference.
Homebrew is different. I neither hate it nor despise it. I don't use it at all. It just annoys me how it has become this defacto installation that everyone pushes on the internet. I don't get it. Supposedly all those internet people are updating constantly to protect themselves from the Communist Menace. Their homebrew doesn't break with every update like it does for people in this forum?
And here I was led to believe you hated AppleScript. Now, its become a hierarchy, probably with homebrew at the top… 😉
. 😉
Python interactive (Terminal) doesn't recognize tabs as whitespace
