page - Conveniently display contents of a long file
(filename) page -> -
The following example displays the license agreement that came with
your copy of NEST:
"statusdict /prgdatadir get (/LICENSE) join page"
The "page" command is used by NEST's online-help system to display
the help pages. It displays the contents of a file, either through a
built-in pager, or an external pager program. The text you are
reading right now is displayed using "page".
You can customize the display. Type "/page ShowOptions" to show your
current settings. Use the "SetOptions" command to customize the
pager program. Here are some useful suggestions. You will want to
put your favourite into your ~/.nestrc file (see "/nestrc help"):
1. /page << /command (more) % Use more as a pager
/wait true >> SetOptions % and wait for termination
2. /page << /command (less -S) % Use less as a pager
/wait true >> SetOptions % and wait for termination
3. /page << /command (xterm -e less -S) % Run less in a separate xterm window...
/wait false >> SetOptions % ..so we can go on working in parallel.
4. /page << /command (xless) % Use xless as a pager
/wait false >> SetOptions % xless opens it's own window.
5. /page << /command false >> SetOptions % use built-in pager.
6. /page ResetOptions % Return to the default configuration ($PAGER or built-in pager).
/command - UNIX command to display a file (default: see below)
/command can be either false or a string.
If /command is set to false, "page" uses the simple built-in
pager "ppage" for display.
If it is set to the name of a UNIX program, "page" will execute
this program as a child process, passing the name of the
file as argument.
/command defaults to the contents of the $PAGER environment
variable. If this variable is not set, it defaults to false.
/wait - whether to wait for the UNIX program to finish. (default: true)
If /wait is set to true, the "page" command will not return until
the UNIX process is terminated. Use this setting for all pager
programs that write to stdout.
If /wait is set to false, "page" will return immediately after
creating the child process. Use this setting for all pager programs
that open up their own window.
The value of /wait is ignored, if /command is set to false.
The string contained in /command is processed by "breakup" to separate
the command from its parameters. Be aware that there is a bug in the
"breakup"-routine, which makes it impossible to pass a parameter
containing blanks by enclosing it in quotation marks.
WARNING: Setting the /wait option to false with a pager
program that writes to stdout will screw up your SLI prompt.
If /wait is set to false, the "system"-command is called in
no-care-mode. Be aware that this may be an expensive operation
depending on the ressources your SLI-process occupies.
(see description of "system").
Even if /wait is set to true, creation of a child process may
be expensive. To avoid any overhead caused by process creation, set /command
to false.
R Kupper
Apr 22 1999, reworked 27-sep-2007
/var/www/debian/nest/nest-simulator-2.20.0/lib/sli/helpinit.sli