kate ignores settings for TAB

Version: KDE 3.90.1 (using KDE Devel)
Installed from: Compiled sources
Compiler: g++ 4.1.1-51.fc6
OS: Linux

I normally indent with spaces, so I want to have the indentation mode set to spaces, however when I press the TAB key, I really really want a tab, not a bunch of spaces, I'd have pressed the space key if I wanted that! ;-)

I don't think I'm the only one who wants that, thus this RFE.

Note that I can get the KDE 3.5 KatePart to mostly do what I want by disabling "use spaces instead of tabs" under Editing and enabling it under Indentation (and also disabling the "Emacs-style" option, which isn't there in KDE 3.90.1 anymore either), but the fact that this works is probably more accidental than intentional. :-)

Speaking of that "Emacs-style" option which can't be disabled anymore, I think that's a horrible way to do indentation. For example, the following code:
[TAB]if (foo
[TAB]____&& bar)
will only align correctly independently of the tabstop setting (which is something the user should be able to set, otherwise what's the point of using tabs at all?) if tabs are used where I used [TAB] and spaces where I used _. The "Emacs-style" indentation breaks that (try it with 4-space tabs and it will change the spaces to a tab, then try switching to 8-space tabs and look at the resulting mess!).

But that's a separate issue, the fact that the tab key can't be configured to simply insert a tab without setting the indentation mode to tabs throughout is much worse.

Switch to Command Line (F7), type 'char 9' and a tab is inserted

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either (it also inserts a bunch of spaces in space-indentation mode, at least in KWrite), and it isn't quite what I'm after anyway (8 keypresses all over the keyboard to insert 1 character).

What about creating a shortcut to do that ? for example shift+tab would do.
And of course you could change it.

Description of problem:
New "feature" in Fedora 9/KDE4 is that Kate cannot increase indentation levels
using tabs. It can only use spaces. Previous versions of Kate used the
indentation found on the line. If it was indented with tabs, it added another
tab. If it was indented with spaces, it added more spaces.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Kate 3.0.4/KDE 4.0.4

How reproducible:
Create a file (program/script). Indent with tabs. Highlight some code and
increase indentation level. It will add spaces, not tabs, to increase the
indentation level.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create code with tabs
2. Highlight part of the code
3. Increase indentation level

Actual results:
Spaces are added to increase indentation level.

Expected results:
An extra tab should be added to increase indentation level.

Additional info:
The expected response to this is, "Just use spaces, not tabs." However, I have
many years of code that uses tabs for indentation. I do not want to go through
600 gigs of code and convert all tabs to spaces just to make a bug in Kate feel
warm and fuzzy about itself.

This is (mostly likely) an upstream issue, not a fedora one. You'd be better
served reporting this to bugs.kde.org. When/if you, please let us know, so we
can continue to track the issue there.

On bugs.kde.org, I found that the feature has not been removed. The redesign of
the configuration is a mess. If you set the tab level and indentation level to
the same number of characters, it will indent with tabs. Otherwise, it will
indent with spaces. There are complaints of inability to indent with spaces
(because both are the same) as well as inability to indent with tabs (because
they are set different). It is obvious that the configuration panel needs a
redesign to make it clear what the user is setting.

FYI, there are several bugs filed upstream about this and related issues, some
of them by me.

*** Bug 172950 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

i suggest doing it like vim does it: have one special key press who inserts whatever you press afterwards literally.

that way one can insert a tab even if tabs are set to expand to spaces, insert a special character like escape and so on.

in vim it is also possible to press number keys to insert an ascii code or, by prepending the numbers with 'u', insert a unicode char.

examples:

<key combo><tab> inserts a tab character
<key combo>009 inserts a tab character
<key combo>u0937 inserts a 'Ω'
<key combo>ux3c0 inserts a 'π' ('x' indicates hexadecimal)

There's a reason I'm using kwrite instead of vim or emacs. If I wanted to use vim as my default editor, I would.

If you want to have an editor that replaces tabs with spaces by default, that's fine (though strongly not my preference). It must be intuitive to get them back, though. Anything less frustrates users.

MS style access to code-points is fine and all, but if I cannot make the tab key produce x09, then something is seriously wrong. Chew on that for a minute.

(Note that I did find the answer to my problem in bug report 172950. What should be intuitively obvious is as obscure as it could possibly be. I think most non-programmers still wouldn't be able to figure it out, let alone find the solution.)

The mantra that should be followed: Get out of my way and let me work!

In newer Kate versions, you can configure shortcut for "insert tab char".
If you don't enforce indent with spaces, tabs are insertable anyway, if you enforce indent with spaces, you can use that shortcut.

Uh, being able to set an obscure shortcut is no substitute for having the Tab key behave as designed.

Well, actually, Tab can be used as a shortcut, but:
* This is not a very intuitive way to set this up.
* The "insert tab" action does not behave like normal typing: For example, it always INSERTS a tab, even if you have text selected, it doesn't replace the selected text.
* Kate also messes with my indentation characters in other cases, e.g. when I paste stuff from the clipboard. So I can't even copy a line of code with unchanged indentation without changing my indentation settings all the time.

There really needs to be a "Don't mess with my indentation characters" option.

There is also no way to set a shortcut for "insert tab char" in other applications embedding the KatePart, e.g. Krusader.

*** Bug 184260 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

There was a bug that the "Insert Tab" action that it did not overwrite selected text, but that was fixed actually quite some time ago.

I am able to use the shortcut in KWrite and Kate... I think it should also appear in all applications that use the KatePart

It is not the nicest or most intuitive way but it gets it done... :)

Please reopen if it does not work in some situation. I will close this as fixed as the added Insert Tab action works for me.