Under certain circumstances, ObjectScript treats whitespace as syntactically meaningful. Unless otherwise specified, whitespace refers to blank spaces, tabs, and line feeds interchangeably. In brief, the rules are:
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Whitespace must appear at the beginning of each line of code and each single-line comment. Leading whitespace is not required for:
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Label (also known as a tag or an entry point): a label must appear in column 1 with no preceding whitespace character. If a line has a label, there must be whitespace between the label and any code or comment on the same line. If a label has a parameter list, there can be no whitespace between the label name and the opening parenthesis for the parameter list. There can be whitespace before, between, or after the parameters in the parameter list.
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Macro directive: a macro directive such as #define can appear in column 1 with no preceding whitespace character. This is a recommended convention, but whitespace is permitted before a macro directive.
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Multiline comment: the first line of a multiline comment must be preceded by one or more spaces. The second and subsequent lines of a multiline comment do not require leading whitespace.
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Blank line: if a line contains no characters, it does not need to contain any spaces. A line consisting only of whitespace characters is permitted and treated as a comment.
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There must be one and only one space (not a tab) between a command and its first argument; if a command uses a postconditional, there are no spaces between the command and its postconditional.
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If a postconditional expression includes any spaces, then the entire expression must be parenthesized.
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There can be any amount of whitespace between any pair of command arguments.
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If a line contains code and then a single-line comment, there must be whitespace between them.
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Typically, each command appears on its own line, though you can enter multiple commands on the same line. In this case, there must be whitespace between them; if a command is argumentless, then it must be followed by two spaces (two spaces, two tabs, or one of each). Additional whitespace may follow these two required spaces.
