> Tabstops were placed every 8 characters. A tabstop is simply a way to "type" 8 spaces with one keypress.
tabstops were _not_ restricted to 8 characters. In many systems different tabstops were different widths from their predecessor. E.g. your first tabstop might be 20 characters in but all the ones after it would be 8 past their predecessor. Alternately you could vary all of them but that'd look pretty weird.
Thanks, TIL. But 8 was common, right? At least from online sources I was under the impression that typewriter tabstops were the reason for the 8 character default.
tabstops were _not_ restricted to 8 characters. In many systems different tabstops were different widths from their predecessor. E.g. your first tabstop might be 20 characters in but all the ones after it would be 8 past their predecessor. Alternately you could vary all of them but that'd look pretty weird.