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Product Version = NetBeans IDE 7.0 (Build 201104080000) Operating System = Mac OS X version 10.6.7 running on x86_64 Java; VM; Vendor = 1.6.0_24 Runtime = Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 19.1-b02-334 In 6.9.1 you were able to have "spaces" in the editor show up as a different color or show up as underlined. In 7.0 "tabs" as well as "spaces" show up as that color. Tabs should not be considered as whitespace and should have their own setting in the editor menu. Currently I have spaces set to show as a grey underline and would like tabs to not show as an underline. Maybe a dotted line or an arrow. When people have strict coding standards at their company to use tabs instead of spaces it gets very confusing looking through code with a bunch of underlines which should be triggered for spaces and not tabs & spaces. To duplicate this issue go to Preferences -> Fonts & Colors -> Syntax -> Whitespace and set a color or underline option. Next open a file and add a few spaces as well as tabs. They are treated as the same character.
I actually always configure my "whitespace" exactly the same as Jostster does. This issue has been around for as long as I've been using Netbeans (6.7). When I first started using Netbeans, I was running nightly builds on a Windows machine. Fast forward to me using Netbeans 7.0 on a Mac, and same situation. Guessing to what causes this, the formatting changes when Netbeans imports settings from a previous installation. I haven't tried a vanilla install of Netbeans 7 to know for sure, but once settings are imported this never seems to fix itself. If it isn't because of the importer, then this is a regression that has come and gone over the past 2 years or so. If there's a 7.0.1 in the pipeline, it'd be great for this to make it in.
Any updates on this?
To highlight TABs you may currently use menu View->Show non-printable characters. If it does not cover your needs can you provide a picture of your idea of an extra TAB highlighting? Thanks.
Created attachment 128920 [details] different background color for spaces and tabs in vim editor I also miss ability to set different backgrond color for spaces than for tabs. Under vim on Linux I can set different background color for spaces and for tabs. This is so much readable than netbeans "show unprintable characters". Would like to see similar alternative in netbeans.
This old bug may not be relevant anymore. If you can still reproduce it in 8.2 development builds please reopen this issue. Thanks for your cooperation, NetBeans IDE 8.2 Release Boss