pico - simple text editor in the style of the Alpine Composer
pico [ options ] [ file ]
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.
- +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 word wrap.
- -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".
If your terminal supports colors, Pico can be configured to color
text. Users can configure the color of the text, the text in the key menu,
the titlebar, messages and prompt in the status line. As an added feature
Pico can also be used to configure the color of up to three different levels
of quoted text, and the signature of an email message. This is useful when
Pico is used as a tool (with the -t command line switch.)
Pico can tell you the number of colors that your terminal
supports, when started with the switch -color_codes. In addition Pico will
print a table showing the numerical code of every color supported in that
terminal. In order to configure colors, one must use these numerical codes.
For example, 0 is for black, so in order to configure a black color, one
must use its code, the number 0.
In order to activate colors, one must use the option -ncolors with
a numerical value indicating the number of colors that your terminal
supports, for example, -ncolors 256 indicates that the user wishes to
use a table of 256 colors.
All options that control color, are four letter options. Their
last two letters are either "fc" or "bc", indicating
foreground color and bacground color, respectively. The first
two letters indicate the type of text that is being configured, for example
"nt" stands for normal text, so that -ntfc represents the
color of the normal text, while -ntbc represents the color of the background
of normal text. Here is a complete list of the color options supported by
Pico.
- -color_code
- displays the number of colors supported by the terminal, and a table
showing the association of colors and numerical codes
- -ncolors number
- activates color support in Pico, and tells Pico how many colors to use.
Depending on your terminal number could be 8, 16, or 256.
- -ntfc num
- specifies the number num of the color to be used to color normal
text.
- -ntbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background for normal
text.
- -rtfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of reverse text. Default:
same as background color of normal text (if specified.)
- -rtbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of reverse
text. Default: same as color of normal text (if specified.)
- -tbfc num
- specifies the number num of then color of text of the title bar.
Default: same as foreground color of reverse text.
- -tbbc num
- specifies the number num of the color in the background of the
title bar.
- -klfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the text of the key
label.
- -klbc num
- specifies the number num of the color in the background of the key
label.
- -knfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the text of the key
name.
- -knbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of the key
name.
- -stfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the text of the status
line.
- -stbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of the
status line.
- -prfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the text of a prompt.
- -prbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of a
prompt.
- -q1fc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the text of level one of
quoted text.
- -q1bc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of level
one of quoted text. If the option -q1bc is used, the default value of this
option is the background color or normal text.
- -q2fc num
- specifies the number num of the color of text of level two of
quoted text.
- -q2bc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of level
two of quoted text. If the option -q1bc is used, the default value of this
option is the background color or normal text.
- -q3fc num
- specifies the number num of the color of text of level three of
quoted text.
- -sbfc num
- specifies the number num of the color of text of signature block
text.
- -sbbc num
- specifies the number num of the color of the background of
signature block text.
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.
pico.save Unnamed interrupted work saved here.
*.save Interrupted work on a named file is saved here.
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.
alpine(1)
Source distribution (part of the Alpine Message System):
$Date: 2009-02-02 13:54:23 -0600 (Mon, 02 Feb 2009) $