Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!ames!amdahl!pacbell!pbhyf!rob
From: rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Benefits of the builtin pager (was: Behavior of ' ' considered inconsistant)
Message-ID: <5299@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Date: 17 May 89 02:01:37 GMT
References: <377@ladcgw.UUCP> <17839@cos.com> <9336@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us> <32@wave4.webo.dg.com>
Reply-To: rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 25

In article <32@wave4.webo.dg.com> tom@wave4.dg.com (Tom Jordahl) writes:
+I simply use less as the default pager.  Do many people do this?  Is more
+used for this default?  Why would you use the built-in pager if more powerfull
+pagers are "standard" ( I am referring to more here) on your system?

The default pager is not necessarily the builtin pager. The default pager
is whatever was configured in. The user can override the default by selecting
an external pager like more or less, or by selecting  the internal pager.

While the builtin pager is rather impoverished in elm 2.2 (and earlier),
it has one important advantage. You can issue any of a subset of the
commands available on the index screen while using the builtin pager,
without having to issue a command to quit the pager first or  return
to the index screen first. With the builtin pager, you have to quit
the pager first, and before elm 2.2, you had to let elm return you to
the index screen first (which was a waste of time if you already knew you
just wanted to read the next message)!

There are plans in the works to have the builtin pager of elm 2.3
move backwards and forwards in the message.
-- 
Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell UNIX/C Reusable Code Library
Email:     ...![backbone]!pacbell!pbhyf!rob   OR  rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM
Office:    (415) 823-2417  Room 4E850O San Ramon Valley Administrative Center
Residence: (415) 827-4301  R Bar JB, Concord, California