Pico (text editor)
Encyclopedia
Pico is a text editor
for Unix
and Unix-based computer systems. It is integrated with the Pine
e-mail client
, which was designed by the Office of Computing and Communications at the University of Washington
.
From the Pine FAQ: "Pine's message composition editor is also available as a separate stand-alone program, called PICO. PICO is a very simple and easy-to-use text editor offering paragraph justification, cut/paste, and a spelling checker..."
Pico does not support working with several files simultaneously and cannot perform a find and replace across multiple files. It also cannot copy text from one file to another (though it is possible to read text into the editor from a file in its working directory). Pico also supports search and replace operations.
Pico's interface is in many ways very similar to that found in Windows
editors, such as Notepad.
By comparison, some popular Unix text editors such as vi
and Emacs
provide a significantly greater number of features than Pico, including regular expression
search and replace and working with multiple files at the same time. However, they are generally harder to learn.
The GNU
project has a clone of Pico called nano
which has been developed because Pico's license was not a free software license, since distribution of a modified version of the code was expressly forbidden. By default nano attempts to mimic Pico to replicate the environment users are used to. However it can be configured to offer mouse support, auto indentation, regular expression searches and even syntax highlighting making it more useful.
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and Unix-based computer systems. It is integrated with the Pine
Pine (e-mail client)
Pine is a freeware, text-based email client developed at the University of Washington. The first version of this client was written in 1989. Source code was available for only the Unix version under a license written by the University of Washington...
e-mail client
E-mail client
An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage a user's email.The term can refer to any system capable of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server, or a human typing on a terminal...
, which was designed by the Office of Computing and Communications at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
.
From the Pine FAQ: "Pine's message composition editor is also available as a separate stand-alone program, called PICO. PICO is a very simple and easy-to-use text editor offering paragraph justification, cut/paste, and a spelling checker..."
Pico does not support working with several files simultaneously and cannot perform a find and replace across multiple files. It also cannot copy text from one file to another (though it is possible to read text into the editor from a file in its working directory). Pico also supports search and replace operations.
Pico's interface is in many ways very similar to that found in Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
editors, such as Notepad.
By comparison, some popular Unix text editors such as vi
Vi
vi is a screen-oriented text editor originally created for the Unix operating system. The portable subset of the behavior of vi and programs based on it, and the ex editor language supported within these programs, is described by the Single Unix Specification and POSIX.The original code for vi...
and Emacs
Emacs
Emacs is a class of text editors, usually characterized by their extensibility. GNU Emacs has over 1,000 commands. It also allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work.Development began in the mid-1970s and continues actively...
provide a significantly greater number of features than Pico, including regular expression
Regular expression
In computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
search and replace and working with multiple files at the same time. However, they are generally harder to learn.
The GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
project has a clone of Pico called nano
Nano (text editor)
nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface. It emulates the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email client, and also provides additional functionality....
which has been developed because Pico's license was not a free software license, since distribution of a modified version of the code was expressly forbidden. By default nano attempts to mimic Pico to replicate the environment users are used to. However it can be configured to offer mouse support, auto indentation, regular expression searches and even syntax highlighting making it more useful.
See also
- List of text editors
- Comparison of text editorsComparison of text editorsThis article provides basic comparisons for common text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles...
- List of Unix programs
- NanoNano (text editor)nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface. It emulates the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email client, and also provides additional functionality....