[KLUG Members] I want to be the master of tabs

[Dirk H Bartley]

If I have a text file with a tab character in it and I 'cat' that file,
tabs are interpreted by ?bash? to display the next item of text at the
appropriate position.  The appropriate position is usually with tabstops
at multiples of 8 character positions.  How do I change the settings of
?bash,stty,whatever? to change 8 to something else.  The target program
is not cat but all programs that send a tab to the terminal.  

I am using multi-gnome-term.
I'm reading termcap and terminfo (the O'Rielly book) and it says that
the termcap or terminfo does not control this.
The real target program is the debugger for unibasic programs.
I'd like to change the way the terminal behaves and not the programs.

I have tried
man bash
man stty
man tset
man tput ? does discuss but does not answer my question ?
editing /usr/share/tabset/vt100
editing /usr/share/tabset/std
Orielly "Termcap and Terminfo".

I am still trying.


Dirk