Re: Importing the apropos GSoC code and switching to mandoc(1) by default

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Sun, 05 Feb 2012, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> > It highlights search terms using escape sequences, which 
> > interacts badly with pagers:
>
> I've changed it to always use the redraw sequences like mandoc 
> does too.  That was already the default when using -p.

Thanks.

> > It prints more than a screenful of output by default.  I'd 
> > suggest either printing only one line per result by default, or 
> > piping through a pager if the output is a tty.
>
> One line per result would remove the context of the match, which 
> would be a serious regeression in usefulness.

I liked the one-line results from the old apropos or man -k, and 
I'd prefer that to be the default.  The context is also very 
useful, but I think it should be optional.

> Forcing the pager by default is IMO a PITA, since all sane 
> terminals have some form of scrollback (xterm, wscons). We could 
> limit the default output to 5, that should be good enough for 
> normal output.

Since man(1) without "-k" uses a pager, I thought that letting 
"man -k" also use a pager would make sense.  However, for 
apropos(1), I agree that invoking a pager by default makes less 
sense.

--apb (Alan Barrett)