Pagination in TTY driver

[jefu]

In article <147 at cybavax.UUCP> rartym at cybavax.UUCP (Richard Artym) writes:
>
>Goodness!  All this time you poor souls have been using tty handlers
>without built-in pagination? ...
>                             ...this is the normal state of affairs,
>the solution should be provided by default.  Where and how it's
>implemented is a separate issue, although most will agree that for
>efficiency and simplicity the best place to put the code is in the
>tty handler...

Most, perhaps.  Historically, perhaps.  

Pagination should be implemented in the terminal.  Silicon is
cheap enough these days to put a lot of smarts in even an inexpensive
terminal.   But even there it should be programmable by the user.  

Lacking that, i think that the best place to but pagination and such is
between the process and the terminal.  It would be nice to be able to 
specify (somehow) a filter that all output went through on its way
to /dev/tt???.  Then i could make my own pagination (or lack thereof)
sit in there and do what i want it to.  

It does not (!) belong in the low level driver.  I think that there
may well be too much going on there now.  If you have a choice between
putting the code in the driver and leaving it out for a user level program,
opt for the latter.  That way it can be more easily changed by someone
who wants something different.  

My philosophy boils down to :
    "When in doubt, leave it out -- of the kernel at least"
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