Pike

A pike (Esox lucius, order Esociformes, family Esocidae) is a carnivorous fish of brackish and freshwaters of northern hemisphere. Eats mainly fish, but water voles and ducklings are also known to fall prey on pikes. Pikes grow to a relatively large size, length of 150 cm and weight of 25 kg are not unheard of. See also Fishing for pike

Alternatively the word pike can refer to a pole weapon once used extensively by infantry and foot-soldiers principally as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Pikes were extremely long weapons, and could exceed six metres in length. The steel tip was fairly long compared to the shaft, making the weapon most unwieldy in close combat. This meant that pikemen were often equipped with a sword for close encounters. In operation on the battlefield, pikes were often used in large square "hedgehog" formations, defending attached musketeers. Large pike formations were in use during the 17th century, but were eventually rendered obsolete by long range firearms such as rifles.

Pike is also a short name for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Pike is an interpreted, object-oriented, dynamic and fast programming language with a syntax similar to C. It includes a powerful modules system that, for instance, has image manipulation, database connectivity and advanced cryptography. It is simple to learn, does not require long compilation passes and has powerful built-in data types allowing simple and fast data manipulation. The official homepage can be found at http://pike.ida.liu.se/