roberto: the tabs to spaces thing is just an example of something that new emacs users want to do, but there's no quick reference for. i could have given an example of how to set the default tab width to 3.
This is not to take a position on the "Eternal Holy War" or set a standard, just giving an example.
For background on the issue see (warning: contains spoilers): http://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html
Odd, my default config for emacs (GNU) is to insert tabs, that's why i added the line to .emacs in the first place by a vi user who will remain anonymous.
i like the explicitness of spaces, but i'll leave it to a true believer to sing the gospel of spaces.