21–30 of 127 posts
But that's just the thing - 'less' isn't "clearly superior" to 'more'. It is (or was, maybe this has changed) heavier weight and offers more functionality that may not be needed. Having both commands lets script writers use exactly the tool they need for the job. And it's not like the extra 35KB of keeping the 'more' binary around is really breaking the bank.
I've used Linux for a decade-and-a-half, but I've never totally loved the shell, because of the need to learn this sort of pointless arcana. PowerShell was a massive step forward, and I had hoped that an Open Source, cross-platform equivalent would develop so that we could get past the current local maxima of 1970s-era design. It's rather weird that the Open Source equivalent of PowerShell is now...PowerShell. Even i…
For example, 'diff (cat a.txt) (cat b.txt)' does something very different from what you'd expect, but works OK for most inputs. The perfect combination for putting bugs into production.
I still like that powershell exists. Especially on Windows where they needed it most. On Linux, though, I'd rather stick with the devil I know.
I prefer less. Incidentally, the other day I was on a CentOS system where I wanted to paginate a log file and typed in "less". Turns out, unlike more, less isn't installed by default. Was a bit surprised because I was under the impression that most Linux systems would have had it in their default install.
Debian doesn't install it by default either - agree, surprising. On another note, even more surprising is less's behavior with colored output (you have -r and -R switches, which are almost, but not completely, alike; and in neither of them does page-up render properly).
I've used Linux for a decade-and-a-half, but I've never totally loved the shell, because of the need to learn this sort of pointless arcana. PowerShell was a massive step forward, and I had hoped that an Open Source, cross-platform equivalent would develop so that we could get past the current local maxima of 1970s-era design. It's rather weird that the Open Source equivalent of PowerShell is now...PowerShell. Even i…
I don't understand your point, PowerShell is a shell too, just like Bash or Zsh. When you call less, more or any other tool from Powershell, you still retain all the problems that are mentioned in the article. I think the article was focusing more on the ecosystem than anything.
> In a sane world, Unix vendors would have either replaced their version of more with the clearly superior less But that's just the thing - 'less' isn't "clearly superior" to 'more'. It is (or was, maybe this has changed) heavier weight and offers more functionality that may not be needed. Having both commands lets script writers use exactly the tool they need for the job. And it's not like the extra 35KB of keeping…
I wonder how many hours have been wasted altogether on people learning, and misunderstanding, which of more or less they should use?
I've used Linux for a decade-and-a-half, but I've never totally loved the shell, because of the need to learn this sort of pointless arcana. PowerShell was a massive step forward, and I had hoped that an Open Source, cross-platform equivalent would develop so that we could get past the current local maxima of 1970s-era design. It's rather weird that the Open Source equivalent of PowerShell is now...PowerShell. Even i…
I dunno, I'm a long term *NIX person (Solaris 1994-2011, Linux on and off 1994-2006, Linux mostly 2006-now) I am now involved in more Powershell scripting on Windows than I have ever done before. I don't see - Get-Content -Tail 10 FILE as an improvement on - tail -10 FILE I think when it comes to the combination of intuitive command names and terseness when required, VMS' DCL is still unsurpassed. Having commands wit…
I know that if I do everything just right, then my scripts will handle filenames with spaces/newlines/other crazy characters, but I always mess up somehow. Nowadays if I ever want a script I'll distribute to people who might have spaces in directories, I write it in python even if it would be a 4 line bash script, just to avoid the issue.
There is another pager, less advanced than more http://www.unix.com/man-page/linux/1/pg/
(Incidentally that link returns a blank page for me on FF mobile.)
Now all we need is someone to modify less to recognize that its standard in is connected the output of more so that if you type `cat /etc/passwd | more | less` it could output something which, more or less, looked like the input.
For all other use cases, 'less' seemed clearly superior.
And then, of course, there is most: http://www.jedsoft.org/most/