If 8 bits positive is 0-255, then 254 makes sense. I would suggest though changing:
> toggle pagelength 500
Okay, your page length is now set to 255 lines.
to a maximum of 254. This is where the problem hits since as soon as you read something that needs paging, it realizes that, no, you can't have 255 lines. I'd like to know why 20 lines though? Why not 5? or 200? or even 254?
Sorry, I don't understand Github.