pico(1) 						      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 rou-
       tine 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  spe-
       cific  files and navigating directory hierarchies.  Filenames with sizes and names of directories in the current working directory are pre-
       sented 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  Justify-
	      ing 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: 2008-08-22 13:40:16 -0700 (Fri, 22 Aug 2008) $

								   Version 5.04 							   pico(1)