Re: Textfile viewer for Unix

Log - Muddy Mudskipper (log_at_newton.apple.com) wrote:
> I would definitely suggest "less" as a text file viewer. It is
> available by anonymous FTP from the GNU archive (prep.ai.mit.edu). If
> you do not have FTP access there are FTP mailservers etc. that you can
> use.
 

> Less supports the 'stty rows xx' under SunOS, I've used it that way
> many times. It also is highly configurable, using the 'lesskey' you
> can define any kind of custom keymap you would want. It supports both
> vi and Emacs type of keymaps built-in, and you can modify that using
> the lesskey utility. It handles large files with ease, and its
> display style is highly configurable.

We've got the same problem: needing something that can preview reports before the users print them. We've abandoned the idea of using the built-in view from ReportWriter, since it requires running the report twice: once to view it and again to print it. Currently we are also using cdimore on our development machine, but can't use it on the live machine, since we don't have CASE on it.

The real advantage I've found with cdimore is that it copes with long lines. Some of the reports we produce are 180 characters by 60 lines per page, and cdimore handles these quite well. It's my understanding (I haven't tried it) that less will wrap these lines to whatever the display width is, rather than allowing the user to scroll sideways.

Does anyone have a PD program that would allow us to get around this problem.

We're on UNIX platforms btw: SunOS and Dynix.

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