Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 13:06:15 -0500
    From: Bryan Kramer <techne.ca at kramer>

    I don't think you guys are listening to Larry's request. It is quite
    reasonable to expect the output from a command to fill as much of the
    page as possible. Would you want an xterm to put the prompt in the
    middle and make the rest of the screen blank after you type "ls" (or has
    everyone forgotten how to use command line interfaces?)

Maybe, maybe not.  It depends on how you get there.  For example, I am
repeatedly annoyed by the habit of many programs to insist on filling
the screen/window with "information" as I'm scrolling down to the last
"page".  When I get to the last "page", I have to break my
concentration and spend time looking for where on the screen the next
line to read is.

This is _not_ good UI design, no matter how much information the
screen is throwing at me.

The hard part is that the computer cannot predict what the user wants
to look at.  To take your example, I'd want the xterm to leave the
start of the output on the screen until I'd read it, then scroll the
next pages' worth along.  Users are going to need different styles,
and there's no _right_ way to scroll.  I'm not even convinced that
there is a way that's right more often that not.

		- Pat
		  <ascent.com at pao>