Name¶
pico - simple text editor in the style of the Alpine Composer
Syntax¶
pico [
options ] [
file ]
Description¶
Pico is a simple, display-oriented text editor based on the Alpine
message system composer. As with Alpine, commands are displayed at the bottom
of the screen, and context-sensitive help is provided. As characters are typed
they are immediately inserted into the text.
Editing commands are entered using control-key combinations. As a work-around
for communications programs that swallow certain control characters, you can
emulate a control key by pressing ESCAPE twice, followed by the desired
control character, e.g. "ESC ESC c" would be equivalent to entering
a ctrl-c. The editor has five basic features: paragraph justification,
searching, block cut/paste, a spelling checker, and a file browser.
Paragraph justification (or filling) takes place in the paragraph that contains
the cursor, or, if the cursor is between lines, in the paragraph immediately
below. Paragraphs are delimited by blank lines, or by lines beginning with a
space or tab. Unjustification can be done immediately after justification
using the control-U key combination.
String searches are not sensitive to case. A search begins at the current cursor
position and wraps around the end of the text. The most recent search string
is offered as the default in subsequent searches.
Blocks of text can be moved, copied or deleted with creative use of the command
for mark (ctrl-^), delete (ctrl-k) and undelete (ctrl-u). The delete command
will remove text between the "mark" and the current cursor position,
and place it in the "cut" buffer. The undelete command effects a
"paste" at the current cursor position.
The spell checker examines all words in the text. It then offers, in turn, each
misspelled word for correction while highlighting it in the text. Spell
checking can be cancelled at any time. Alternatively,
pico will
substitute for the default spell checking routine a routine defined by the
SPELL environment variable. The replacement routine should read standard input
and write standard output.
The file browser is offered as an option in the "Read File" and
"Write Out" command prompts. It is intended to help in searching for
specific files and navigating directory hierarchies. Filenames with sizes and
names of directories in the current working directory are presented for
selection. The current working directory is displayed on the top line of the
display while the list of available commands takes up the bottom two. Several
basic file manipulation functions are supported: file renaming, copying, and
deletion.
More specific help is available in
pico's online help.
Options¶
- +n
- Causes pico to be started with the cursor located n lines
into the file. (Note: no space between "+" sign and number)
- -a
- Display all files including those beginning with a period (.).
- -b
- Enable the option to Replace text matches found using the "Where
is" command. This now does nothing. Instead, the option is always
turned on (as if the -b flag had been specified).
- -d
- Rebind the "delete" key so the character the cursor is on is
rubbed out rather than the character to its left.
- -e
- Enable file name completion.
- -f
- Use function keys for commands. This option supported only in conjunction
with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet.
- -h
- List valid command line options.
- -j
- Enable "Goto" command in the file browser. This enables the
command to permit explicitly telling pilot which directory to
visit.
- -g
- Enable "Show Cursor" mode in file browser. Cause cursor to be
positioned before the current selection rather than placed at the lower
left of the display.
- -k
- Causes "Cut Text" command to remove characters from the cursor
position to the end of the line rather than remove the entire line.
- -m
- Enable mouse functionality. This only works when pico is run from
within an X Window System "xterm" window.
- -nn
- The -nn option enables new mail notification. The n argument
is optional, and specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox is checked
for new mail. For example, -n60 causes pico to check for new mail
once every minute. The default interval is 180 seconds, while the minimum
allowed is 30. (Note: no space between "n" and the number)
- -o dir
- Sets operating directory. Only files within this directory are accessible.
Likewise, the file browser is limited to the specified directory
subtree.
- -rn
- Sets column used to limit the "Justify" command's right
margin
- -s speller
- Specify an alternate program spell to use when spell checking.
- -t
- Enable "tool" mode. Intended for when pico is used as the
editor within other tools (e.g., Elm, Pnews). Pico will not prompt
for save on exit, and will not rename the buffer during the "Write
Out" command.
- -v
- View the file only, disallowing any editing.
- -version
- Print Pico version and exit.
- -w
- Disable word wrap (thus allow editing of long lines).
- -x
- Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
- -z
- Enable ^Z suspension of pico.
- -p
- Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically
Ctrl-Q and Ctrl-S, which are sometimes used in communications paths to
control data flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
- -Q quotestr
- Set the quote string. Especially useful when composing email, setting this
allows the quote string to be checked for when Justifying paragraphs. A
common quote string is "> ".
- -W word_separators
- If characters listed here appear in the middle of a word surrounded by
alphanumeric characters that word is split into two words. This is used by
the Forward and Backward word commands and by the spell checker.
- -q
- Termcap or terminfo definition for input escape sequences are used in
preference to sequences defined by default. This option is only available
if pico was compiled with the TERMCAP_WINS define turned on.
- -setlocale_ctype
- Do setlocale(LC_CTYPE) if available. Default is to not do this
setlocale.
- -no_setlocale_collate
- Do not do setlocale(LC_COLLATE). Default is to do this setlocale.
Lastly, when a running
pico is disconnected (i.e., receives a SIGHUP),
pico will save the current work if needed before exiting. Work is saved
under the current filename with ".save" appended. If the current
work is unnamed, it is saved under the filename "pico.save".
Bugs¶
The manner in which lines longer than the display width are dealt is not
immediately obvious. Lines that continue beyond the edge of the display are
indicated by a '$' character at the end of the line. Long lines are scrolled
horizontally as the cursor moves through them.
Files¶
pico.save Unnamed interrupted work saved here.
*.save Interrupted work on a named file is saved here.
Authors¶
Michael Seibel <mikes@cac.washington.edu>
Laurence Lundblade <lgl@cac.washington.edu>
Pico was originally derived from MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy.
Copyright 1989-2008 by the University of Washington.
See Also¶
alpine(1)
Source distribution (part of the Alpine Message System):
$Date: 2009-02-02 13:54:23 -0600 (Mon, 02 Feb 2009) $