On 2023-11-02 06:48, Thomas Guyot wrote:
On 2023-10-13 16:12, Dragan Simic wrote:
On 2023-10-12 18:19, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Dragan Simic <dsimic@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Please note that dropping "-X" and leaving "-F" would actually
introduce the inconsistency that I already mentioned. To reiterate,
short outputs would then remain displayed on screen, while long
outputs would disappear after exiting less(1).
Good point.
I've been thinking about this, and a rather elegant,
backward-compatible
solution is possible, but it requires some improvements to be made to
less(1) first. I'll reach out to the author of less(1) and propose
that
new feature, and I'll let you know his opinion about it.
Hey there...
Hello!
I'm clearly late to the party but I'm wondering, has anyone tested
adding -cy0 ? From the manpage (slightly edited):
-c or --clear-screen ( and backward compat. -C or
--CLEAR-SCREEN )
Causes full screen repaints to be painted from the top
line down. By default, full screen repaints are done by scrolling
from the bottom of the screen.
AFAIK, the "-c" option is about the way screen contents is updated when
scrolled, and it exists to aid in resolving possible issues with some
terminal emulators. To make sure, I just tested it, and "-c" doesn't
replace "-X".
-yn or --max-forw-scroll=n
Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll
forward. If it is necessary to scroll forward more than n lines, the
screen is repainted in‐
stead. The -c or -C option may be used to repaint from
the top of the screen if desired. By default, any forward movement
causes scrolling.
This option is, I'd guess, also about aiding in resolving possible
issues with some terminal emulators. Or maybe even with some actual
terminals as pieces of hardware, who knows, which may be too slow to
scroll many lines at once.
I actually have one major issue with it, it's that displaying anything
less than a full page will fill the screen with ~ on the bottom, just
like when scrolling up on a partial page without -F. I can see this
being a major annoyance when using for ex. git log -1, git show --stat
or --name-only, etc. as I usually do it to keep the latest history
within the current screen (and there's likely even commands that I
never seen using the pager because I never exceeded the page height).
Huh, this confuses me a bit, quite frankly. Isn't the "-F" option used
specifically to make pagination invisible in case fewer lines than one
full screen are displayed?
OTOH by repainting from the top, the scrollback buffer is never
affected. only the last displayed page remains on the terminal.
Just to clarify, it's the "-X" option that creates all the issues, and
the "--redraw-on-quit" option is already there to replace it with no
associated issues, but the trouble is that only newer versions of
less(1) support the "--redraw-on-quit" option. IOW, it's all about
improving less(1) to avoid complex workarounds required to handle
different versions, such as the workarounds used in bat(1).
If less could only enable this behavior after the first full page
draw, that would be perfect!
Could you, please, elaborate a bit on that?
Dragan, that may be useful if you're discussing with less
developers...
We've basically reached some kind of an agreement about the need for a
good solution, which turned out to be rather complex as a result of
being quite universal and extensible, which was required for it to,
hopefully, be accepted into less(1). Also, the author of less(1) seems
to be quite busy with some other things, and he prefers to implement new
features himself.
We've also agreed on another new feature for less(1), hopefully, which
isn't exactly related, but should be quite useful. It's about the
secure mode for less(1).
