Replacing tabs in vi

[Randy Gibbons]

This seems like a likely group, hope it doesn't offend too many.

Is there a way in vi to have spaces rather than tabs placed in the
text.  I know about tabstops and shiftwidth and that's not really
what I want.  I've also written a filter which replaces tabs with
the appropriate number of spaces but this too falls short of my goal.

What I'd really like it to just have vi place the correct number of
spaces rather than tabs in the file.

Yet another option for oh so simple a program!

While I'm at it,.....  Does MH_MAIL have an interactive mode which allows
me to look at a list of mail messages and after each one give a
command describing what to do with that piece of mail (refile, rmm,
etc)?  Something sort of like rn.