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From: tim@cithep.UucP (Tim Smith )
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Pagination in TTY driver
Message-ID: <124@cithep.UucP>
Date: Sat, 31-Aug-85 21:17:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: cithep.124
Posted: Sat Aug 31 21:17:47 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 07:35:13 EDT
References: <2067@ucf-cs.UUCP> <363@cuae2.UUCP> <2423@sun.uucp>, <5915@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Caltech HEP, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 27

>> 		The better pagers allow reverse and forward viewing. I find
>> this capability indispensible. Do you plan to add a buffer in the kernel to
>> allow reviewing of previous lines ?
>
> This, we have not done; it would be a major added complication.  We find
> the in-kernel pager very useful without it.  We agree that the in-kernel
> pager is not the answer to all mankind's problems, or even all Unix's
> pagination problems.  We are not convinced that "more" and its kin do in
> fact represent such an answer, either!

Time for a third point of view here.  Pagination belongs in the terminal!
Note that the terminal already knows how many lines long the screen is.  It
also knows what happens at the last column.  It alread knows about escape
sequences recognized by itself, so it can deal with cursor addressing 
programs. 

And with what RAM prices have been doing, it is not unreasonable for a
terminal to have lots of memory, so you can back up.  Besides, in the
future, I think most "terminals" will be personal computers running
terminal emulator programs. 

While I'm at it, the terminal is also where history belongs...
-- 
unlk	a6
rts
					Tim Smith
				ihnp4!{wlbr!callan,cithep}!tim