> Do we need both attributes? Two ways to get the same thing?
> As long as we understand which one takes precedence, I suppose.
Well, tabstop will do tabwidth but not conversely. Yet it is most
common to only need tabwidth. So if I were voting I would want both
and since tabstop is the most general would give it precedence if
it wasn't possible to consider it a conflict to have both and complain
during verification and ignore both during presentation.
The difficulty I have with the <pre> specific proposal is that it
ignores other contexts where TABs might be useful. TABs are a shorthand
for entry of alignment information just as some shorthands are being
proposed for ease of entry of math elements. The width / stop values
should optionally be in more meaningful units like points, decipoints
millimeters, inches, etc. Specification of alignment options should
also be allowed (left, right, center, decimal). This then becomes
a quick way to enter table data for very common table forms. It
shouldn't need fixed fonts to work.
David Morris