less _is_ more

Question

Level 1

113 points

less _is_ more

Interesting:

% diff -s `which less more`
Files /usr/bin/less and /usr/bin/more are identical

less and more are the same thing on Darwin. I assume this is probably true for Free BSD in general, but it is definitely not so for Linux.

- Phil

[edit:] While I wrote "less is more" in the subject, in fact "more is less" is more accurate -- I was paying homage to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe by using the conventional form of the phrase.

2.0GHz and 2.66GHz 20" iMacs, 1.83GHz Mac Mini, 550MHz PB Ti, 400MHz PowerMac G4, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jan 5, 2009 11:11 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Jan 5, 2009 12:29 PM in response to Board Head2

I can't speak for Linux, but for a long time now, more has been linked less.

less is a somewhat more advanced version of more, allowing better navigation and searching than more supported ( more pretty much started at the beginning of the file and ran through to the end while less supports paging backwards, searching, brace matching, etc.).

Since less does everything that more does, plus more there's little need to use more anymore, so less is more in more ways than one (yes, that sentence is deliberate 😉 ).

Reply