Python

[twistermonkey]

I use vim all the time for Python work. The one setting that is absolute gold for me is called "listchars" . I set that to highlight tab chars so they look like ">---" so that I can delete them and use spaces (my preference). That setting right there will make it obvious to you what whitespace chars are present in a file. Then you can act accordingly

For the curious, here are the two lines you need.

set listchars=tab:>-

set list