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Current Version: 0.016

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Vigor Goes Mainstream!

The first mainstream-mag review of Vigor has been released! That's right, Salon, a general-interest magazine, has run a short blurb on Vigor and the chilling implications it could have on the free software movement. Or something.

Vigor Useful?!?

One user actually found Vigor to be useful! After all that time and effort I put into making a totally useless app, somebody has to go and get some benefit out of it.

The user in question had been trying to learn Vi for some time. However, his manual neglected to mention the difference between the Insert mode and Command mode. (What kind of tutorial was he using?) His confusion was lifted when he saw the prompt from Vigor:

You have not entered insert mode before. While you're in insert mode, remember that you need to return to command mode before entering Vigor commands!

Before Vigor's public release, I had changed that prompt once because I deemed it "too useful" (it mentioned the Esc key by name). Apparently, I just didn't make it useless enough.

I'll tell you, some people just don't know a bad thing when they've got it.

Vigor Scooped?

Yes, it's true, the open-source vi clone VIM already has its own smiling face.

Apparently, there is an option to VIM called VimBuddy, which will display an ASCII smiley (eg, ":-)") on your status line for different status reports. The Windows version of VIM will also update the icon with a face as well!

I still won't say what my motives for writing Vigor were, but I think you can be sure they weren't the same as the ones that prompted the creation of VimBuddy.

(Note to the interested: I don't have any other information about VimBuddy; you may want to do a search on egroups. That shows up a few discussions, some code, and the author's name.)