Pico Text Editor


What is Pico?

Pico is an easy-to-use text editor on the PCS systems that is designed to work in tandem with Pine e-mail. It can also be used with the Tin news reader and can be set as the default text editor for your Logon Server account.

You can start Pico two ways:

* by typing in "pico filename" at the PCS UNIX system prompt Unlike many UNIX file editors, which require memorizing and typing a lot of commands on a command line, Pico works with key combinations based on the Control key (Ctrl).


Pico Keystroke Commands

Basic key combinations used by the Pico editor are shown below.

     Ctrl-f    moves the cursor forward a character
     Ctrl-b    moves the cursor backward a character
     Ctrl-p    moves the cursor to the previous line
     Ctrl-n    moves the cursor to the next line
     Ctrl-a    moves the cursor to the beginning of the current
               line
     Ctrl-e    moves the cursor to the end of the current line
     Ctrl-v    moves the cursor forward one page
     Ctrl-y    moves the cursor backward one page
     Ctrl-w    searches for a string of text
     Ctrl-l    refreshes the screen display
     Ctrl-d    deletes the character at the cursor position
     Ctrl-k    cuts selected text
     Ctrl-u    pastes the text, which was last cut, at the cursor
               position
     Ctrl-i    inserts a tab at the current cursor position
     Ctrl-j    justifies the current paragraph
     Ctrl-t    invokes the spelling checker
     Ctrl-r    inser