UW Pico™ 2.9 Help Text

Converted to HTML and Edited by Dr. C. S. Tritt

See the warning below before using Pico.

Pico is designed to be a simple, easy-to-use text editor with a layout very similar to the pine mailer. Each character typed is automatically inserted into the buffer at the current cursor position. Editing commands and cursor movement (besides arrow keys) are given to pico by typing special control-key sequences. A caret, '^', is used to denote the control key, sometimes marked "CTRL", so the CTRL-q key combination is written as ^Q.

The following functions are available in pico (where applicable, corresponding function key commands are in parentheses).

search for (Where is) text, neglecting case.

^G	(F1)	Get (display) this help text.
^F		move Forward a character.
^B		move Backward a character.
^P		move to the Previous line.
^N		move to the Next line.
^A		move (Advance) to the start of the current line.
^E		move to the End of the current line.
^V	(F8)	move forward a page of text.
^Y	(F7)	move backward a page of text.
^W	(F6)
^L		Refresh the display.
^D		Delete the character at the cursor position.
^^		Mark cursor position as beginning of selected text. Note: Setting mark when already set unselects text.
^K	(F9)	cut (Kill) the selected text (displayed in inverse characters). Note: The selected text's boundary on the cursor side ends at the left edge of the cursor. So, with selected text to the left of the cursor, the character under the cursor is not selected.
^U	(F10)	Uncut (paste) last cut text inserting it at the current cursor position.
^I		Insert a tab at the current cursor position.
^J	(F4)	Format (justify) the current paragraph. Note: paragraphs delimited by blank lines or indentation.
^T	(F12)	invoke the spelling checker.
^C	(F11)	report current Cursor position.
^R	(F5)	insert (Read) an external file at the current cursor position.
^O	(F3)	Output (save) the current buffer to a file.
^X	(F2)	Exit pico, saving buffer.

The Pico screen as layed out as follows. The status line at the top of the display shows pico's version, the current file being edited and whether or not there are outstanding modifications that have not been saved. The third line from the bottom is used to report informational messages and for additional command input. The bottom two lines list the available editing commands.

I tested Pico from home using Windows 95 Telnet on 9/9/97 and found that:

1. The only function key working was F2 (Exit).
2. The begin selection command (^^, i.e. Control-Shift-6) corrupted my screen (pressing ^L restored it).
3. Pressing ^K (cut) with nothing selected deleted the line the cursor was on.
4. Both the Delete and Back Space keys caused distructive back spacing.
5. The PC arrow keys worked.

1. The begin selection command (^^, i.e. Control-Shift-6) did nothing.

Pine and Pico are trademarks of the University of Washington. No commercial use of these trademarks may be made without prior written permission of the University of Washington.