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pico(1) DragonFly General Commands Manual pico(1)
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) $
Version 5.07 pico(1)