Whitespace like a civilized person

whitespace.el

;; whitespace mode configuration
(require 'whitespace)

; make whitespace-mode use just basic coloring
(setq whitespace-style (quote
  (spaces tabs newline tab-mark newline-mark face lines-tail)))
(setq show-trailing-whitespace 't)

(global-whitespace-mode 't)

;; make whitespace-mode use “¶” for newline and “▷” for tab.
;; together with the rest of its defaults
(setq whitespace-display-mappings
 '(
   (space-mark 32 [183] [46]) ; normal space, ·
   (space-mark 160 [164] [95])
   (space-mark 2208 [2212] [95])
   (space-mark 2336 [2340] [95])
   (space-mark 3616 [3620] [95])
   (space-mark 3872 [3876] [95])
   (newline-mark 10 [182 10]) ; newlne, ¶
   (tab-mark 9 [9655 9] [92 9]) ; tab, ▷
))

;; Trailing whitespace is unnecessary
(add-hook 'before-save-hook (lambda () (delete-trailing-whitespace)))