Here's what I think I would like ...

A unix command named 'topify' which allows you to create a pipeline of stdio into a top-like, updating, single screen output.

So, let's say you have a command with multiple lines of output - like netstat or certain airport commands - but instead of doing silly things like I do now:

  while true ; do airport -s ; sleep 10 ; tput clear ; done

... I could `topify airport -s` and I would just get a nice, single page, constantly refreshing output summary.

There are a LOT of commands I wish I could 'topify' from time to time ...