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From: flee@gondor.psu.edu (Felix Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Pg vs. Less (Re: Sun vs. 3B2 (was: Ksh availability?))
Message-ID: <3046@psuvax1.psu.edu>
Date: Tue, 3-Nov-87 06:50:17 EST
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.3046
Posted: Tue Nov  3 06:50:17 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 01:07:19 EST
References: <6615@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1957@killer.UUCP>
Sender: netnews@psuvax1.psu.edu
Reply-To: flee@gondor.psu.edu (Felix Lee)
Organization: The Roadside Picnic
Lines: 24

In article <1957@killer.UUCP> elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
>"pg" is sorry compared to "less".

Pg is comparable to less.  Both let you go to an arbitrary point in a file.
Both let you page backwards (but less will use scroll-backwards, if your
terminal has it; pg doesn't).  Pg with the -n option will use cbreak mode,
like less, so you don't have to hit RETURN after every command.

Pg is better than less.  If you feed a pipeline to pg, pg will copy stdin to
a temporary file, so you can still go to an arbitrary point in your output.
Less is limited by internal buffering.  Pg also has a "save" command, so you
can pipe a command to pg and keep the results after seeing them.  Less
(version 73) has an -L option to "log" stdin, but you have to decide to save
stdin before you invoke less.

Less is better than pg.  Less lets you set marks in the style of vi.  Less
lets you change tabstops with the -x option.  Even better, you can change
options while you're in less:  just type "-x4" or "-x2" the next time you're
looking at a C program that indents 12 levels deep.  Pg has none of these
features.

Pg is licensed by AT&T.  Less is free.
--
Felix Lee	flee@gondor.psu.edu	{cbosgd,cmcl2}!psuvax1!gondor!flee