Display of text fields - Mailing list pgsql-general

[Sorry for possible repeat: I'm not putting up very well with the
technicalities of ... your Majordomo ... -:)]

Hi all!

[Using PG 7.2.1 on Debian/Woody, k. 2.2.22]

After a very long struggle I finally succeded in transferring my old
*.dbf file and the relating *.dbt (alias memo fields) to a pg table.
For the time being I put the memo field in a separate table having two
fields only (i.e.: n_memo integer, memo text) which can be related to
the main table in a view.

Now, the first problem is that when I do a select * from this table it
will scroll up to the end, no matter whether \x or \t or \pset pager are
set or not!  [For information: if I put the text fields in the main
ex.dbf table - which has more columns - or do a select from the view,
the page control works fine].

Second problem: the display of each text field looks like this:

# ---------- quote ---------
-[ RECORD 1
]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
col1 |    Anatomical Diagrams for the use of the Art Students Arranged with analytical Notes and drawn out by James M.
Dunlop,A.R.C.A., Antique and Life Class Master and Lecturer on Artistic Anatomy in the Glascow School of Art. With
IntroductoryPreface by John Cleland, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glascow Fourth
Edition[Present of Mrs ...]  London. G. Bell & Sons Ltd. MDCCCCXVIII pp.  8 + 72 tavv., ril. ed. 18,5x26.7 Siena, lugl.
2002Ancilli  

[Example taken from a single column table, but the result is the same
for the 2 cols table]

# ----------- unquote --------

The display is no better with pgaccess on a graphic Xterm: the field
size does not adjust to the content of the text field, so that
it becomes very difficult to read large texts.

My questions are then:

1. Is there a way to avoid displaying the '---------' lines, apart from
   the \a flag ?
2. In case I put the memos in the main table, would it be possible to
   control someway the display of memo-text fields? [Only some of the
   records have a memo, and a referring col set to 'T', so I'm looking
   for a selective instruction, such as: if ctl_memo='T' display memo,
   else, display the other cols only].
3. Does the pager work better on version 7.4.3?

I realize that the version (7.2.1) I'm working with is old as compared
to the running 8.0, so your help will be particularly appreciated.
Regards,
    Ennio.


--
[Perche' usare Win$ozz (dico io) se ..."anche uno sciocco sa farlo.     \\?//
 Fa' qualche cosa di cui non sei capace!"   (diceva Henry Miller) ]     (°|°)
[Why to use Win$ozz (I say) if ... "even a fool can do that.             )=(
 Do something you aren't good at!" (used to say Henry Miller) ]