Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Spaces indentation
Raised as a usability problem by 14 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 12 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Editing space-indented code takes more keystrokes than tabsUnreviewed
20092026- Must press backspace four times to de-indent when using spaces2019-08-16
- Spaces are more annoying to delete than tabs2019-03-01
- Editing space-indented code means dealing with multiple spaces, which is slower than tabs2015-12-27
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 14 complaints
- Can't find the right textbox to enter a channel address, and no feedback when it's correct2026-07-25
- Bridge-created spaces scatter WhatsApp chats into a separate place, forcing hunting for messages2022-09-16
- Hard to click or count the right number of spaces when aligning code2021-05-17
- With four spaces, visually impaired devs must scroll far to reach next line2021-05-17
- Must press backspace four times to de-indent when using spaces2019-08-16
- Spaces are more annoying to delete than tabs2019-03-01
- Users must remember which app or window is in which space2017-03-27
- Making a new text post takes two clicks before typing can start2016-05-17
- Editing space-indented code means dealing with multiple spaces, which is slower than tabs2015-12-27
- Finds macOS Spaces practically unusable compared to true multiple desktops2012-05-29
- Alt-tab jumps to another space showing the app, making it hard to open a new window on the current space2011-02-14
- Spaces groups windows by application rather than by the user's tasks, so related windows get scattered2011-02-12
- Alt+tab switching between Spaces is problematic and the feature feels slow2010-10-24
- Clicking program icons unexpectedly switches desktops and starts windows on unwanted spaces2009-02-27