Add this to your .profile/.bashrc etc:
altdo() {
echo -e '\e[?1049h'; "$@"; echo -e '\e[?1049l';
}
then run altdo man
or altdo less
, altdo top
etc.
Explanation:
The escape sequences enable and disable the alternate screen before and after the command execution. If it is a non-interactive program you will see nothing, but can manually switch to alternate screen to see the output.