If you use tabs, then you cannot have a column limit because the line length changes depending on what the tabstops are. In Linux they say tabs are 8 character

If you use tabs, then you cannot have a column limit because the line length changes depending on what the tabstops are. In Linux they say tabs are 8 characters, which no they are not, so they can have an 80-column line limit. Anybody programming with a less than 8 character tab can't get the column limit right (the number of characters on a line changes with the indentation level). Tabs are invisible characters that don't have a standard width so are always causing problems like this. They are used because many programmers use editors where they would have to actually press space multiple times to indent/unindent (ie bad editors) and because source control doesn't know when an indent change actually means something vs just being cosmetic.