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Using TextMate on Mac, the "invisibles" can be displayed by using

View -> Show Invisibles

But the space vs tab characters are not shown, and Preferences doesn't seem to have any entry to change that either. Is there a way to show them? It is because some older coder may have tab or space mixed together so what looks good in the editor may actually be misaligned. (editor shows tab as 2 spaces)

A: 

Tab characters are shown, but spaces are not. What's probably happening is that you have Soft tabs turned on, in which case the tabs are converted into spaces automatically.

alt text

In this picture there is a tab character, new line, tab character, new line, soft tab, new line

See this thread for an explanation as to why spaces are not shown.

Here is where you can change soft/real tabs. alt text

I82Much
so when "Soft Tabs" is on, then tabs are not shown as well? So to see them, choose the "Show Invisible" and also disable "Soft Tabs"?
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Soft tabs literally means that the tabs are converted into the equivalent number of spaces. So you won't see the tab character. If all you need to do is distinguish between tabs and spaces, then you're fine leaving it on or off - you'll be able to tell the difference either way
I82Much
actually, i think it might have been a tab character that was there... and I think TextMate won't convert existing tab character into spaces, only new ones.
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