diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 7118029ca..4c6b9c39f 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -326,7 +326,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "log",
  "num_cpus",
  "once_cell",
- "pico-args",
  "pulldown-cmark",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
@@ -607,12 +606,6 @@ version = "2.1.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "d4fd5641d01c8f18a23da7b6fe29298ff4b55afcccdf78973b24cf3175fee32e"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "pico-args"
-version = "0.4.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "7d7afeb98c5a10e0bffcc7fc16e105b04d06729fac5fd6384aebf7ff5cb5a67d"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "pin-project-lite"
 version = "0.2.6"
diff --git a/helix-term/Cargo.toml b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
index ece32395f..59d5b3252 100644
--- a/helix-term/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }
 num_cpus = "1"
 tui = { path = "../helix-tui", package = "helix-tui", default-features = false, features = ["crossterm"] }
 crossterm = { version = "0.19", features = ["event-stream"] }
-pico-args = "0.4"
 
 futures-util = { version = "0.3", features = ["std", "async-await"], default-features = false }
 
diff --git a/helix-term/src/main.rs b/helix-term/src/main.rs
index da03569d6..432f2a200 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/main.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/main.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 
-use anyhow::{Context, Result};
+use anyhow::{Context, Error, Result};
 
 fn setup_logging(verbosity: u64) -> Result<()> {
     let mut base_config = fern::Dispatch::new();
@@ -48,9 +48,53 @@ fn setup_logging(verbosity: u64) -> Result<()> {
 }
 
 pub struct Args {
+    display_help: bool,
+    display_version: bool,
+    verbosity: u64,
     files: Vec<PathBuf>,
 }
 
+fn parse_args(mut args: Args) -> Result<Args> {
+    let argv: Vec<String> = std::env::args().collect();
+    let mut iter = argv.iter();
+
+    iter.next(); // skip the program, we don't care about that
+
+    loop {
+        match iter.next() {
+            Some(arg) if arg == "--" => break, // stop parsing at this point treat the remaining as files
+            Some(arg) if arg == "--version" => args.display_version = true,
+            Some(arg) if arg == "--help" => args.display_help = true,
+            Some(arg) if arg.starts_with("--") => {
+                return Err(Error::msg(format!(
+                    "unexpected double dash argument: {}",
+                    arg
+                )))
+            }
+            Some(arg) if arg.starts_with('-') => {
+                let arg = arg.as_str().get(1..).unwrap().chars();
+                for chr in arg {
+                    match chr {
+                        'v' => args.verbosity += 1,
+                        'V' => args.display_version = true,
+                        'h' => args.display_help = true,
+                        _ => return Err(Error::msg(format!("unexpected short arg {}", chr))),
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+            Some(arg) => args.files.push(PathBuf::from(arg)),
+            None => break, // No more arguments to reduce
+        }
+    }
+
+    // push the remaining args, if any to the files
+    for filename in iter {
+        args.files.push(PathBuf::from(filename));
+    }
+
+    Ok(args)
+}
+
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let help = format!(
@@ -76,18 +120,24 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         env!("CARGO_PKG_DESCRIPTION"),
     );
 
-    let mut pargs = pico_args::Arguments::from_env();
+    let mut args: Args = Args {
+        display_help: false,
+        display_version: false,
+        verbosity: 0,
+        files: [].to_vec(),
+    };
+
+    args = parse_args(args).context("could not parse arguments")?;
 
     // Help has a higher priority and should be handled separately.
-    if pargs.contains(["-h", "--help"]) {
+    if args.display_help {
         print!("{}", help);
         std::process::exit(0);
     }
 
-    let mut verbosity: u64 = 0;
-
-    if pargs.contains("-v") {
-        verbosity = 1;
+    if args.display_version {
+        println!("{} {}", env!("CARGO_PKG_NAME"), env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"));
+        std::process::exit(0);
     }
 
     let conf_dir = config_dir();
@@ -96,11 +146,7 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         std::fs::create_dir(&conf_dir);
     }
 
-    setup_logging(verbosity).context("failed to initialize logging")?;
-
-    let args = Args {
-        files: pargs.finish().into_iter().map(|arg| arg.into()).collect(),
-    };
+    setup_logging(args.verbosity).context("failed to initialize logging")?;
 
     // initialize language registry
     use helix_core::syntax::{Loader, LOADER};