Re: [groff] 04/05: {g, n}roff.1.man: Give assistance to pager users.

[Dale Snell]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 7:51 AM John Gardner <address@hidden> wrote:

> BTW, stupid question: how did people in the 70s read
> lengthy files without a pager...? When I ran Unix 7 on
> SIMH, it lacked both less(1) *and* more(1).

If more (or the equivalent) wasn't available, being
adroit with the <ctrl-s> and <ctrl-x> keys was the
usual way.  Loading the file into ex or the like could
also work, though I don't recall doing that myself.
Some terminals, the Tek 401x series especially, could
be configured to tell the host to stop sending text on
a "page full" condition.  Some sent the proper RS-232
hardware signals, some sent <ctrl-s>/<ctrl-x>.  The
Tek terminals I worked with actually sent a bit clock
to the host, which allowed the terminal to accept text
as fast as it could.  On "page full", it stopped
sending the bit clock, which stopped the text in its
tracks.  I suppose this saved trying to coerce the DEC
terminal card into DTRT with hardware signals.  (It's
been a long time, and my memory isn't what it was.)

-- 
--Dale

I have a simple question,
The truth I only wish:
Are all fishermen liars,
Or do only liars fish?