You should need unusual shortcuts to make an issue not an issue.  Just
solve the issue, and then it works for people who don't use the
unusual shortcuts, as well.

It is an issue for me.  One example is when I uncomment text, as I've
explained.  The text is just 4 spaces away. Do you use Ctrl+right
arrow?  or press right arrow once?  I use right arrow.  I bet people
who use Ctrl+arrows would do the same.  Then, they are going through
spaces.  It's annoying, and it does bite people.  With tabs, there are
no such issues.

Not nonsense.  I highly doubt any single person on this planet uses
more than 1 tab for indentation.  We all consistently use 1.  If not
all, the extreme vast majority.  It's the old decrepit editors that
make it bad but not adhering to any standard for how large to make
them.  On the other hand, look at spaces... 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and who
knows how many others?  Completely inconsistent.

I'm talking about source code.  Not XML or HTML.  Source code.  All
source code.  One tab.

Only when using spaces do you have the issue of dealing with how many
you should use.  I understand why people use them, to avoid issues
between multiple editors, but for a lot of people, they don't deal
with such things.  I'm not writing code to be put on a webpage.  I'm
writing in VS.  Fortunately, I needn't worry about using spaces
because of people using anticated editors, so I use tabs, and all of
these space issues vanish.  (Except when VS puts spaces in when I
asked it not to, which is my sole concern today.)

Again, I am talking about programming in an IDE, not publishing code.
Yes, I am fortunate to not have to worry about those issues.  If I
did, then I'd probably try and use a consistent standard with them.
Unfortunately, that breaks down the benefits of tabs, for a better
benefit.  Since, I just use my IDE, I am not going to use a worse idea
(and require Ctrl+arrow to move through 4 spces when i could use arrow
once) just because other people are unfortunately needing to embed
code meant to be written in an IDE into something else because they
wish to share it.

I agree spaces are best for portability.  But, that's not an issue for
most people.  I would suggest such displays of code outside of the
editor be improved anyway.  They should covert tabs into spaces as
needed when it is pasted it.  (When people copy and paste it back into
their own IDEs, it'd convert it back to tabs.)  Look at the number of
webpages showing monochromatic code.  They should have coloring.  They
are just an incomplete solution to a problem, but the best available
so far, so people try to ease the issues uses spaces, making their IDE
editing worse in the process.  I feel for them.

I think the de facto is 4.  I'd be surprised if any major IDE uses
otherwise.  And even if that were the case, I'd love to see the
%ages.  I bet 99%+ use 4.  If that's not de facto, I don't know what
would be.  Besides, the number of spaces can be changed, as you said,
to suit the programmer.  I could use a different font, and increase it
to 6 or 7 since the space is smaller than in courier.  With tabs, none
of this is an issue, since the code on another IDE that uses tabs is
displayed in the same format.

Spaces are only for portability for decrepit systems, or systems not
meant to display code.  I feel for people who need to use them.
Luckily, I don't.  Let's move ahead instead of being held back:
http://nickgravgaard.com/elastictabstops/
(amazingly great read)
Otherwise, we'll never improve.

Zytan