HowCanI Change width of tab spacing in plain text tab key?

[nuncus]

TB version 16.0.2
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:16.0) Gecko/20121026 Thunderbird/16.0.2

Dear Folk:

Is there an "about:config" entry that can be used to increase the width of the <TAB> space in plain text emails, and, if so, what is it (i.e., the entry and the values for it)?

Also, just in case I am just missing the setting in "Options," is there a setting anywhere in options for adjusting the width of the <TAB> space in plain text emails.

It looks like my tab spacing is set to four (4) spaces per <TAB>; I would like to increase the <TAB> width to five (5) or seven (7) spaces per press of the tab key.

Pursuant to a "search" of the message board, I see that there was a thread on this topic that was bouncing from category to category in the TB indexes of groups at some point in 2012; but it does not appear as if an answer was ever derived in the thread (i.e., it just looked to me like the discussion of the point just petered out with no resolution).

I also checked in the KB at

http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.php?tit ... ntable=yes

and

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About&#058;config_entries

and

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Category:Preferences

but didn't find anything under "tab" or "tabwidth" or anything like that and more or less concluded that the entry and its value(s) are probably technical computer terms of art that I would not recognize for what they are even if I did stumble upon them.

Also, a link to any materials found in the KB so that I could go read the raw material for myself would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nuncus

[nuncus]

C'mon, Folk, surely one of the old hands knows the magic entry in the TB "about:config" file for increasing or decreasing the number of spaces/width contained in a <TAB> key press. There just has to be some key name in there with an integer value attached to it that controls this issue.

I set up the question with plain text in mind; but I'm reasonably confident that the same entry controls tab key width both in plain text and in HTML -- a tab is a tab is a tab.

I'm more or less thinking along the lines of TB's front end's being, underneath it all, firstly, a text editor; and usually the text editors, at least the hackable ones like TB, have a setting somewhere (either in a dbox or in a configuration file) that lets the user increase or decrease the width of the tab space/indent length.

Hoping......, and

Thanks in Advance,

Nuncus

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy nuncus,

29 views so far. i suspect the reason you have had no [other] responses is that the setting does not exist. it likely will require digging into the code to do what you want ... and that would pro'ly require recompiling the app. not an easy thing to do.

you might want to post a question about this to the 3rd party builds subforum here. another option is to post to the IRC channels that mozilla runs for developers.

take care,
lee

-ps
you might also want to fix the thread title. [*grin*] "HowCanI" is a tad off-putting.
lee-

[morat]

that would pro'ly require recompiling the app

Yep. It is hard-coded.

http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-release/sou ... zer.cpp#31
http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-release/sou ... pfl.cpp#19

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy morat,

thank you for the info, dude! it's appreciated. [*grin*]

take care,
lee

[nuncus]

Dear Folk (Dailey, Morat, et. al.):

Thank you very much for putting this issue to rest. When something is actually hard coded into an app, and it is something one is seeking to alter, the best answer one can get is the one that tells him the item is hard coded; and the sooner that answer is received the better. Otherwise, one ends up in an intractable time sink. I had already spent at lest three hours in the Knowledge Bases (both here and at Mozilla) prior to posting the question here.

I must say, though, I am hugely surprised that the width of the <TAB> space is hard coded into the app; TB is so changeable. There must be a reason why the development team made the decision to hard code that item. It probably has to do with line wrapping and formatting in the email context as opposed to the text editor context.

Thanks again,

Nuncus

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy nuncus,

you are quite welcome! glad to offer some degree of help ... [*grin*]

take care,
lee