Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!mcnc!gatech!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!killer!dcs!wnp
From: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: MKS ls -C slowness (was: Re: Unix emulation alternatives ... )
Message-ID: <35@dcs.UUCP>
Date: 28 Feb 88 12:48:34 GMT
References: <811@athos.rutgers.edu> <2330@cognos.UUCP>
Reply-To: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Organization: DCS, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 24

In article <2330@cognos.UUCP> brianc@cognos.UUCP (Brian Campbell) writes:
 >In article <811@athos.rutgers.edu> hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick)
 >writes:
 >> The other odd thing is that I
 >> had a performance problem with their "ls".  I like ls to produce
 >> columnated output, as it does under BSD.  They supply a -C option, so I
 >> figured I'd just alias ls to ls -C.  That works, but is very slow.
 >
 >I noticed  this too, although I  never took the  time to figure out  why. I
 >have also  resorted to  using "ls  -x" (although, I  would much  prefer the
 >sorted-down format). Thanks for the explanation.

It's slow because "ls -C" uses "c.exe" to columnize its output. I use the MKS
Toolkit with the Beckemeyer Development Tools "Micro C-Shell", which has
"ls", and the "-C" option, built-in, and is thus much faster.

I wish though that the MKS "ls" had the "-C" option built-in rather than using
an external program, since I prefer it to the Micro C-Shell "ls" for other
reasons -- but until they fix it, speed is the deciding factor.
-- 
Wolf N. Paul                  Phone: (214) 306-9101 (h)   (214) 404-8077 (w)
3387 Sam Rayburn Run          UUCP: ihnp4!killer!{dcs, doulos}!wnp
Carrollton, TX 75007          INTERNET: wnp@dcs.UUCP       ESL:  62832882
Pat Robertson does NOT speak for all evangelical Christians--not for me, anyway!