I blame whoever decided to make 8 spaces the default tab width on older systems. Yes, the beauty of tabs is that you can change the defaults and make one tab sh

I blame whoever decided to make 8 spaces the default tab width on older systems. Yes, the beauty of tabs is that you can change the defaults and make one tab show up as whatever you want, but most people don't change the defaults. And 8 spaces is just too much more often than not. From the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_key): > A common horizontal tab size of eight characters evolved, despite five characters being half an inch and the typical paragraph indentation of the time, because as a power of two it was easier to calculate in binary for the limited digital electronics available. Why someone decided to round up to 8 instead of down to a much more sensible 4 spaces is beyond me.