pager

1. hardware, communications (Or "beeper", "bleeper" (UK?))

A small wireless receiver that, when triggered (generally via

phone), will beep or vibrate (un)pleasantly. The wearer will

have been trained to respond to this signal by looking at a

small screen on the device for an unimportant message.

In recent years, pagers have grown more complex, allowing for

long alphanumeric messages to be received and scrolled

though (as opposed to earlier models, which supported only

short numeric messages); at the same time as pager functions

are integrated into some PDAs. If this trend continues, the

distinction between PDAs and high-end pagers will

disappear.

Short Message Service allows a mobile phone to display a

message, just like an alphanumeric pager.

2. tool A program for viewing a text file a screenful at a

time via a text terminal, as opposed to scrolling through it

in a GUI window, or catting it all at once to the

terminal.

The best known pagers are more, less, pg and list.com.

(1997-09-11)