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I use my MacBook for my CS class, using terminal. I usually connect to a Linux server via ssh. The servers are super laggy at times so I've decided to just work on projects on my local machine and transfer them later.

I like using the pico editor - don't judge! Pico on my schools server has syntax highlighting. My MacBook (offline) has plain black and white.

How would I go about enabling syntax highlights for pico?

Thanks!

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I tries that from superuser, but couldn't get it to work – ModdedLife Feb 16 at 0:46
Pico doesn't normally have syntax highlighting. Are you sure the one on your school's machine isn't linked to nano instead? In any case, now might be a good time to learn a new editor with some more features. Personal preference is emacs for a console one, but go and pick any you want! – slugonamission Feb 16 at 0:54

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 16 at 0:51

marked as duplicate by studiohack♦ Feb 16 at 6:29

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

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Pico does not support syntax highlighting. Your school has almost certainly installed Nano instead, and then linked the pico command to nano, so either command invokes the same program. Nano is another editor that works very similarly to Pico, with some extra features, including syntax highlighting.

Nano is available for Mac, too.

Emacs and Vim are two more popular and feature-rich console text editors that could be worth learning if you're going to be at this for more than a semester or two. You might also wish to try XCode, which is Apple's development tool. Whatever you choose, be sure to copy your assignments back to your school's network and test them there before you turn them in; your instructor might not be sympathetic if you turn in non-working code and your only excuse is that it worked at home.

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