Motivation:
Each and every editor handles whitespaces tabs etc. differently. The first step to get everyting out to the open is so show whitespaces and tabs the way the editor sees them. For me it's emacs and the following lines in your ~/.emacs should give you a good view of whitespaces.
Look at this
documentation for all references
Please be patient and drop me a comment if there are any errors or misunderstandings. I'm really no emacs pro!!!
(require 'whitespace)
(global-whitespace-mode t)