Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 09:21:33 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Tor Sjowall <tor AT sn DOT no>
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Make problem with spaces instead of tabs
In-Reply-To: <328c0dd0.353900065@news.sn.no>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.961113091917.4470I-100000@is>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, Tor Sjowall wrote:

> I'm sure there is some historic argument for insisting on the tabulator as
> a prefix to make command lines, but I cannot see any problems with
> accepting a space too.

The reason is compatibility with other Unix Make's.  If Make accepts a
space, it lets you produce Makefiles that won't be useful with other
versions of Make on Unix.  On the other hand, *all* versions of Make,
including those which come with DOS compilers, support a TAB as the first
character.