Editing Pico (programming language) (section)

{{Other uses|Pico (disambiguation)}}
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{{Infobox programming language
| name = Pico
| paradigms = [[Reflective programming|Reflective]], [[Procedural programming|procedural]]
| family = [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]
| designers = Theo D'Hondt<br/>Wolfgang De Meuter
| developer = [[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]]
| released = {{Start date and age|1995}}
| latest release version = 2.0
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2007}}
| programming language = [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]]
| platform = [[IA-32]], [[x86-64]]
| operating system = [[Mac OS 9]], [[macOS]]; [[Linux]]–[[BSD]], [[Windows]]
| website = {{URL|pico.vub.ac.be}}
| influenced by = [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]], [[Smalltalk]]
}}
'''Pico''' is a [[programming language]] developed at the Software Languages Lab at [[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]], intended to be simple, powerful, extensible, and easy to read.<ref name="pico_d&r">{{cite journal |last1=D'Hondt |first1=Theo |last2=Gonzalez |first2=Sebastian |last3=De Meuter |first3=Wolfgang |date=1 January 1999 |title=The design and rationale behind pico |url=https://www.academia.edu/509697/The_design_and_rationale_behind_pico |journal=Programming Technology Lab, Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel |page= |access-date=3 December 2023}}</ref> The language was created to introduce the essentials of programming to non-computer science students.

Pico can be seen as an effort to generate a palatable and enjoyable language for people who do not want to study hard for the elegance and power of a language. They have done it by adapting [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme's]] [[Semantics (computer science)|semantics]].

While designing Pico, the Software Languages Lab was inspired by the Abelson and Sussman's book "[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]". Furthermore, they were influenced by the teaching of programming at high school or academic level.

Pico should be interpreted as 'small', the idea was to create a small language for educational purposes.