INTRODUCTION

Vim 8's most anticipated feature is undoubtedly the :smile command. This command increases the happiness of Vim users, and by doing so increases their productivity.

However, not everyone can enjoy this new functionality. Some developers are stuck with old Linux distributions that have old Vim builds, and can't upgrade to Vim 8. Others use Neovim, which heartlessly refuses to port the :smile command.

This plugin implements the :smile command in Vimscript, so that everyone can enjoy it. It also extends the mechanism to allow plugin authors to create their own smiles.

If you are able to use a recent Vim build that supports :smile you should prefer the native implementation as it is more performant.

USAGE

Use the :Smile command to show a smile and increase your happiness. Use :Smile type-of-smile to show a specific smile. :Smile smile is the same as :Smile.

CREATE YOUR OWN SMILES

To create your own smile, create in one of the directories listed in runtimepath a directory named "autoload/smile/resource/"(if it does not already exist), and put in there a file with the .sml extension. The file format is as follows:

• First line - the name of the default highlight group. This will be the highlight group of all characters that don't have a special highlight group specified.

• A list of special hightlight groups. Each line will consist of a highlight group name, a single space, and a list of unseparated characters. These characters will be highlight with that highlight group. Take care to not separate the characters with commas or spaces or anything. or the separator character will also be highlighted.

• A blank line. This marks the end of the header.

• The ASCII art of the smile itself.

To use your smile, run :Smile with the name of the file minus the extension as the argument. For example, if your file is "autoload/smile/resource/hello.sml", run:

:Smile hello