On Fri, 1 Jun 2001 jchacon@genuity.net wrote:

> This is just scrollback. Screen is much much more than that. 

but it also does a good job at scrollback.

> 
> Using that logic the whole multi-VT concept should go away since screen
> essentially provides that as well.

i dont disagree with this line of thinking.. i tend to be trigger happy in
slaying feeping creatures wherever i see them... :) 

> 
> Scrollback is useful for any number of things (especially boot messages which
> aren't syslog'd). Being able to only look back at them once before I may
> swap VT's (say to start X) makes this not as useful as it could be.

but boot messages have a very specific buffer they live in for this very 
purpose, because you cant run something like screen for that. that buffer
also is good for other reasons, i doubt that was the primary motivation.. 
but general scrollback once youre in userland, using something like screen
for that i think, is the better solution that sticking it in the kernel. 
just because linux does it doesnt mean we must!

isildur