Is there any way to persuade Eclipse to use tabs instead of spaces for indenting its built-in Java content assist proposals (such as when creating an empty method which overrides a method in the parent class)?
The only setting I could find that looked relevant is in Windows/Preferences/General/Editors/Text Editors/Insert spaces for tabs, and this setting is unchecked.
(EDIT: Several posters have pointed out Java / Code Style / Formatter / Indentation / Tab policy, which is set to "Tabs only")
At the moment I have to remember to select them and re-format with <Ctrl>+<Shift>+<F>
.
I found the solution, thanks to Simon Nickerson's comment above, which is what the original poster was referring to in his edit. After having found the setting, I see what they are talking about. However, the way to it was given a few steps from the beginning of the path, so it fails to give a clear answer to people who are new to Eclipse or have been away from it for a few years, like me. so I'll give the full path here:
Now, what's really broken is the fact that these settings override the more up-front interface for changing similar-sounding settings in "Windows/Preferences/General/Editors/Text Editors/Insert spaces for tabs". To someone relatively new to the editor, this would seem like the place to set the default tabs = spaces setting. After finding the real answer, it's clear that this is just for general text editing, and language-specific settings need to be set up in the profiles for the languages at hand. This should be made a bit clearer for noobs, though. ;-)