ls without buffering is a nearly transparent algorithm.

[Whammo]

require io

: ls
parse-name ?dup if
else drop s" $"
then
8 0 open ioabort
clrchn
8 chkin ioabort
chrin chrin 2drop page
chrin drop
begin chrin drop more
chrin chrin 8 lshift + .
begin chrin ?dup while emit repeat
cr chrin 0= until
clrchn 8 close
;

[jkotlinski]

Nice! It is clearly more user-friendly, as the screen output starts sooner.

[ekipan]

An edge case: I just happened to have exactly 21 files on my disk and the interpreter's ok prompt scrolled the directory heading off the top of the screen. The built-in ls didn't have an empty line so the ok prompt didn't do that. I put a 22nd file and the built-in ls scrolled off the header, whereas your ls did more.

Maybe not an edge case worth caring about since ls is just a convenience.

[ekipan]

I think you can match the behavior by moving cr more before any output deleting the cr at the end. Might also be a good idea to put more at the beginning of the loop anyway. Maybe it doesn't matter.

[Whammo]

Getting a good look at the directory, #324

I'm looking for balance. 😄