Trailblazer #3 — Transcript

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1. 0:00For my third Trailblazer activity, I
2. 0:02wanted to compare the difference between
3. 0:04these pager functions, the more and the
4. 0:06less command.
5. 0:08And it's because in the lecture, both
6. 0:10commands looked like they had the same
7. 0:12idea compared to cat,
8. 0:13where they showed one text screen at a
9. 0:16time.
10. 0:17But when I tried them, they behaved
11. 0:18differently, whereas when I would use
12. 0:20the LS
13. 0:22function
14. 0:24like this,
15. 0:26and then I would do less
16. 0:28or I'll do more first.
17. 0:30Um I wouldn't be able to use the arrow
18. 0:32keys, and when I would reach the end
19. 0:35using the space bar,
20. 0:38it would keep the text on screen and it
21. 0:41would drop me back to the prompt,
22. 0:42where when I would use
23. 0:45less instead,
24. 0:49I would be able to use my arrow keys and
25. 0:55when I would reach the end,
26. 0:58it would keep me on this page until I
27. 1:00press Q,
28. 1:01where it won't even show up
29. 1:03on
30. 1:06on my screen anymore. And this is where
31. 1:08I used AI to help me understand why this
32. 1:10is the case and explained to me that
33. 1:11more is the much older, much simpler
34. 1:14tool
35. 1:15and it's mostly moves forward and quits
36. 1:18at the end of the file,
37. 1:19whereas the less can scroll backwards,
38. 1:21search both directions, and highlight
39. 1:23matches.
40. 1:25And it explained to me that the text
41. 1:27vanishes at the end because the less
42. 1:29uses the terminal's alternative screen,
43. 1:32where
44. 1:33the more prints into the normal scroll
45. 1:35back, as we can see here.
46. 1:37Then I asked why I would choose one over
47. 1:39the other.
48. 1:40And the AI pointed me pointed out that
49. 1:43the less isn't always guaranteed to be
50. 1:45installed and especially in other
51. 1:48systems, while more is almost always
52. 1:51installed.
53. 1:52And we can check this by making the
54. 1:53command
55. 1:55such V
56. 1:58more to be
57. 2:02And they'll show up here. And if it
58. 2:05doesn't show up, it just means it isn't
59. 2:06installed.
60. 2:08I also asked if I could make the less
61. 2:10function act like the more by adding a
62. 2:12flag.
63. 2:13And
64. 2:15the flag that matches more are dash E
65. 2:17which exits exits at the end and capital
66. 2:20X which keeps the text on screen. And we
67. 2:22can see this if we do slash E X
68. 2:26nums
69. 2:28X.
70. 2:29The text will behave as usual where we
71. 2:31can use the arrow keys and if we reach
72. 2:33the end
73. 2:35this text will stay on screen.
74. 2:38AI was able to speed things up for me
75. 2:41because I would be able to ask it
76. 2:43follow-up questions instead of searching
77. 2:44through the textbook.
78. 2:46And it always helps me avoid making
79. 2:48wrong assumptions because before I
80. 2:50thought I would be able to use a flag
81. 2:53dash R and it quickly corrected me that
82. 2:55no, these are the other ones that I
83. 2:56should use.
84. 2:58Um some key takeaways that I
85. 3:01got from this was to use less by default
86. 3:04because it does everything that the more
87. 3:05function does and more
88. 3:07and keeps the more function in mind for
89. 3:10other systems where less might not be
90. 3:13available.
91. 3:14Thank you.