Hi, i signed up yesterday as it was the only way to dl from here. I went for the zip containing the most recent build instead of the installer (bc I love understanding how the different pieces fit together as easy as possible, I read parts of the documentation, enough to know what I was supposed to do (create the *.rc files with appropriate contents - and dl a theme and relevant modules - to make the shell work).

However, what disappointed me (from a manual installer perspective) is that litestep.exe does no have default fallback variables to fall back on in (my case definate) case of their absence from the *.rc files. This made me give up on manual thingy in favour of the installer, and I didnt like the installer bc because of the default theme, and that my desktop (the windows etc) got really slow and laggy, I tried a few themes also but same thin there (although some were quite nice looking) so for the moment I have uninstalled the LS, but I hope that the variables in the *.rc files that are not ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED, like for example the vars related to the current theme (in themeselect.rc), since you must have SOME theme (which is no part of the core) for LiteStep to work, same thing cannot be said about the vars in the rc's, these defaults can be a part in litestep.exe in order to make the actual rc's easily (and I mean EASILY) managable, what do you think, why expose the internals if they are not recommended to be modified by beginners ?

Hi humid1980,

You know, I'm the same way. If it can be done manually so I can learn something, I usually try to do so.

Eventually, you will want to use the installer (otherwise you will not be able to use most available themes). However, if you aren't interested in using other peoples themes (or releasing your own), then manual configuration is the way to go with litestep.

The best way to start is to grab LiteStep Build 0.24.7 from the downloads section or http://www.lsdev.org/ . Dump it into C:\Litestep (or whatever) then upgrade it with the last experimental release off of lsdev.org again.

Then thoroughly read release_notes.txt in the litestep folder. That should give you everything you need to start playing around with Litestep on your own.

Last thing to note, is that Litestep by itself will give you no functionality (thus why there are no "default variables"). You must load modules (plugins) to get any functionality. Modules can be downloaded from http://ls-universe.info/ or http://www.shellfront.org/modules-list.php

Feel free to post back with any specific questions you have.

Thanks for the reply.

I really did read major parts for release_notes.txt, what i', saying that IMHO all default variables in the rc files that are either ment for litestep.exe or the different modules should have been in litestep.exe and modules as default fallback variables, and only if a LiteStep tool (or manual tweaking) would create those variables in the rc's then those cretaed one should (would) be parsed and override the default fallback ones, this would make the rc's almost infinately) smaller and alot cleaner, but if there's some technical obstacle for that that I'm not aware of I'd like to know, thanks again.

What you are saying is generally already the case. What problem are you having that makes you think otherwise?

Ok, I tried to access the online tutorials/docs (not the one included in the build) to post some variable sections here and be more detailed about my thoughts but it seems there's something wrong (?), IIRC there were quite some extensive docs/tutorials in this site, or maybe my mind is playing some tricks on me.. anyway I'l post as soon as I access those docs again.

These docs?

http://lsdocs.shellfront.org/litestep.php

Sorry dude, I've had my head busy on other thing and it looks to continue alittle bit longer, so I'll get back to what I was philosophizing about ( :P ) some time later..

Oh and, thanks for the link :)