Erasing a tab gives a space behind cursor

[guth]

If having the following in a C++ file (using GNU Emacs key bindings) where arrow means tab, dot (.) means space, and | means cursor

->->|

Now hitting back space one time yields

->...|.

Hitting backspace three times yields

->|.

Now hitting backspace again yields

...|..

[Dan]

Go to Macro>Set Macro Variable and set the variable "def_hack_tabs" to 0.  This is on a dialog somewhere but I'm not sure where and I'm on my first cup of coffee 

[guth]

Great! That seems to work.

[Dan]

If memory serves, this was a very old Emacs behavior.

[mwb1100]

That is one of the weirdest "it's a feature, not a bug" things I've ever heard.

How does having to support a setting like that not drive you crazy?