Vigor

Vigor

Vigor (pronouced like "Igor", Dr. Frankenstein's assistant), the popular Unix editor vi with the addition of the Vigor Assistant, has arrived.

XMMS Vigor Plugin

In response to a recent User Friendly comic strip, I've written a Vigor plugin for XMMS. Now you can have Vigor dance and nag you while you work!

Visit the Vigor SourceForge page to download it, or if you don't have XMMS, you can check out the movie.

Vigor Moved To SourceForge

I've transferred Vigor development to SourceForge. I hope to use its resources to help me put out future improvements.

Vimgor

For some deranged reason, Andy Kahn decided to port Vigor from its current nvi framework to Vim. I haven't played with it yet, but from what I hear, it's worth checking it out, particularly if you're a Vim fan.

About Vigor

Based on the User Friendly comic strip storyline from 4 January to 14 January, Vigor brings all the features of traditional Unix vi, plus the friendly and helpful Vigor Assistant. (If you aren't familiar with User Friendly the Comic Strip, quit bothering with Vigor and go out and look there first. It's well worth the trip! Don't worry, we'll wait.)

Enter the world of Vigor! Come, join us, watch the paperclip, don't be afraid... *cough* Sorry, where was I?

Screenshots, Graphics, and Other Goodies

The most frequent request I've had since releasing Vigor recently is for screenshots. I've made a separate page with a few for those who don't have the time or tools to compile Vigor; enjoy!

Tom Mulder created the Vigor logo at the top of the page, and the logo on the screenshots page as well. Thanks, Tom!

And, if you just can't get enough paperclip action (you sick puppy you), svo (aka Viacheslav Slavinsky) has created a brief Vigor MPEG, an excellent bit of artwork. For those who can't see view MPEGs, he has also created some stills: still 1 and still 2. Yay, svo!

Acknowledgments

Vigor would never have been had it not been for these people's efforts.

• Illiad, author of User Friendly the Comic Strip, for keeping my spirits up with his work for years, and for conceiving of Vigor to begin with.
• The authors of nvi (listed in the README), particularly Steve Kirkendall, George Neville-Neil, and Keith Bostic. Without nvi to work from, there could be no Vigor.
• John K. Ousterhout and the other contributors to Tcl/Tk, without which I couldn't have written Vigor in time to release during the Vigor storyline.
• Peter Mattis, Spencer Kimball, and the other contributors to The GIMP, for helping even me make half-decent art. (You don't want to know what the art looked like before GIMP's help.)
• Michael J. Gourlay and the other contributors to xmorph.
• The guys at Red Bean Software, for hosting Vigor's distribution.
• Scott Talafuse, Beth Gemeny, and some weirdo named Andrew who crashed in my apartment for the last week or so, for providing ideas and moral support.
• Noah Friedman, Jamie Zawinski, Jim Blandy, Thomas Bushnell, Roland McGrath, and a cast of dozens for (unknowingly) providing most of Vigor's snide remarks.
• The Vigor users who provided me with ideas and bug reports... Couldn't have done it otherwise!

(Note: If I put your name on this page, I probably didn't include the email addresses, because I don't want spammers to pick it up. If you don't mind, let me know and I'll add your email address.)

Release Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mountain View, CA. In a recent fit of madness, hacker Joel Ray "Piquan" Holveck has released Vigor, a version of the popular Unix editor vi featuring the Vigor Assistant. Holveck declined to comment on his true motives for creating the program, although it has been confirmed that he was inspired by Pitr of User Friendly the Comic Strip. A supporter of the Free Software Foundation, Holveck denies rumors that he created the program as part of a plot to encourage the use of Emacs based on Greg's 10 Jan comment. Vigor is currently available online at vigor.sourceforge.net and is expected to undergo daily improvements based on user input for the next several days.

(Note: This link previously pointed to red-bean.com, but I've moved Vigor to sourceForge now.)