ldaplist: Why so much white space?

Sometimes little things drive me nuts. So nuts, it's almost tempting to get into some code and make it right. Of course, that would have absolutely no return on investment for a singificant amount of hassle, but I have to admit I think about it from time time. What has rubbed me the wrong way?

The complete lack of either [1] aesthetic engineering, or [2] use of traditional 80x24 console screens as experienced by the developers of the ldaplist utility. It's as if someone had just finished a grade school term paper when they wrote the output format. Here's the default output:

testbox# ldaplist
dn: cn=Directory Administrators, dc=example,dc=com

dn: cn=nsAccountInactivationTmp,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=Timezone,dc=example,dc=com

dn: automountMapName=auto_home,dc=example,dc=com

dn: automountMapName=auto_direct,dc=example,dc=com

dn: automountMapName=auto_master,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=projects,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=group-ldap,dc=example,dc=com

dn: automountMapName=auto_shared,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=SolarisAuthAttr,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=SolarisProfAttr,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=people,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=group,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=rpc,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=protocols,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=networks,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=netgroup,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=printers,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=hosts,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=services,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=ethers,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=profile,dc=example,dc=com

dn: ou=aliases,dc=example,dc=com


Forty-seven lines? That takes up WAY too many lines and provides no value for the white space incurred, not to mention requiring me to scroll my terminal window when I'm on the console. This actually annoys me enough that I run the command this way:

testbox# ldaplist | sed '/^$/d'

dn: cn=Directory Administrators, dc=example,dc=com
dn: cn=nsAccountInactivationTmp,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=Timezone,dc=example,dc=com
dn: automountMapName=auto_home,dc=example,dc=com
dn: automountMapName=auto_direct,dc=example,dc=com
dn: automountMapName=auto_master,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=projects,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=group-ldap,dc=example,dc=com
dn: automountMapName=auto_shared,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=SolarisAuthAttr,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=SolarisProfAttr,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=group,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=rpc,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=protocols,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=networks,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=netgroup,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=printers,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=hosts,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=services,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=ethers,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=profile,dc=example,dc=com
dn: ou=aliases,dc=example,dc=com


Ahhh, that's better. And at 1/2 the screen real estate I rarely need to scroll. Come on, what on Earth would motivate someone to add extra newlines to an output like this? Next thing you know they'll offer CSS templates so your output can have the right "user experience" complete with standard fonts.

Ok, I feel better now... Really. I'm ok.