Hi Michiel,
If you turn on 'Show spaces' in Editor [Tools|Preferences|View|Show|Spaces and Tabs], it will indicate regular spaces with a dot. Non-breaking spaces will have no dot.
Perhaps this would be sufficient for your requirement.
If you do need to modify charent.cf, check that you aren't making your modification in a 'unixonly' section of the file. It is divided into several sections marked 'unixonly' and 'windowsonly'.
Hope this may help.
Cheers,
David
David S. Taylor
Project Manager, Structured Information
Institute for Research in Construction
National Research Council Canada
Bldg. M-23A, Room 239
1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Tel:+1.613.990.2731
Fax:+1.613.952.4040
Email: David.S.Taylor@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Web: www.irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca