Bitten by indentation

Python should raise more appropriate exception when the indentation in a class definition is not consistent.

Python allows you to use either spaces or tabs to indent your code; but you can't use both. You can't mix and match. Now this is not a big deal (although it does sort of violate the "there is one way to do things" rule that Python seems to adhere to fairly consistently) but it does mean that if you cut and paste some code from another file you could be lining yourself up for problems.

The thing is that Python, for some reason, doesn't complain when your indentation is not consistent within the definition of a class; instead, it gives an error that has nothing to do with the actual problem. For example, the following code:


1 class t:
2 [tab]def f():
3 [tab][tab]x = 5
4 [space][space]print x
5
6 [tab]def x():
7 [tab][tab]pass
8
9 t()


Will raise a NameError and say that 'x' is not defined on line 4. I don't understand why this doesn't raise an IndentationException the same way it would outside the class definition.