Re: what is it that LiteStep does for the non-programmer?

Roy Gathercoal wrote:
> All right. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that there are
> "scripts, modules, graphics and groups of module settings" that will
> allow me to perform some task(s) better than I could without LiteStep?
> 
> My keyboard has a number of user-defined keys along the side and top 
> that can be assigned to scripts, URLs, or "gadgets" that many other 
> people have written and which are conveniently gathered together for me 
> on some secret MS site somewhere.

I can view/edit/modify/verify the source code of the gadgets that I make 
and/or use in LS. No secret phone calls to Redmond from *my* gadgets. MS 
gadgets typically try to please too wide an audience (i.e., all Windows 
users), and thus make compromises in terms of their features or 
configurability. They may be easier to use (though not always!), but for 
some of us that extra bit of customization we can get with LS is well 
worth the additional effort.

> I also use Firefox. I have several toolbars I can display or not that are
> composed entirely of icons for gadgets from Google--most of which is
> simple drag-and-drop of the application icon to the toolbar.

I don't use any toolbars in Firefox, but there are several extensions 
that I find extremely valuable. I think that LS modules/scripts/widgets 
are more like a Firefox extension than some MS gadget. Somebody creates 
something because it satisfies a need or want, and then it is made 
available to the community, where it may be dissected/enhanced/altered, 
etc.  Or discarded and forgotten. =P

> I understand that many of LiteStep's themes use Windowblinds to control
> the "look and feel" of windows, so it should be safe to say that making
> these sorts of changes are not what drives LiteStep.

That's something that has to be repeated over and over to the n00bs. LS 
does not skin Windows. It may very well be configured to match the look 
of a particularly sweet window skinning theme (Windowblinds, or some 
patched uxtheme Style-XP sort of thing), but it doesn't alter the MS 
styles. You can use the classic style and modify the color scheme with 
LS (or something like 3DCC), that's what I've been doing for a while 
now. There are even utilities to alter other aspects of the window look 
(fonts, element sizes, etc.) in both module and EXE form, namely 
e-sushi's ECS code. LS also has some very useful window management 
modules (stretch windows to maximum height or width, move them to a 
particular corner, center them, 'windowshading', altering opacity, 
etc.). I use these quite a bit. The focus of LS is quite different than 
WindowBlinds, however. The two complement each other, but do not overlap 
very much.

> Now the gadgets from MSN and from Google are exceptionally easy to
> install and use, especially after you sift out the poorly
> designed/executed ones. My LiteStep experience is obviously limited (no
> snickering in the back, there!) yet so far I would say that the LiteStep
> gadgets are on the whole neither better nor worse than those emerging
> from the "search-engine wars."

One way to think of LS might be as a "toolbox". There are other tools 
out there, to be sure - Google's sidebar and gadgets, the MS gadgets (I 
think for Vista in particular, although I've never used the OS), various 
clones of Konfabulator from Yahoo as well as other third parties. They 
all have their pluses and minuses, strengths and weaknesses. I do not 
think that any of them offer the comprehensive control of the look and 
feel of the user interface in the manner supported by LS. Some of the LS 
tools are replacements for the standard MS offerings - taskbar, system 
tray, clock, start menu. Others go well beyond that, offering tools that 
are common in the linux world, but absent in MS offerings to date - a 
*usable* right click desktop menu, for instance.

> So what is it that LiteStep can do for me that Windowblinds,
> configurable keyboards, and gadgets from Google or MSN (or others, I
> suspect) can not do?

The icing on this cake is that all the LS tools can be made to work 
together. Can you get an MS gadget to interact with a Google gadget? 
Probably not - at least in any sort of useful or positive way. you might 
get the one to crash the other. ;)

> Brian, in particular you mentioned doing some tasks with greater
> ease/effectiveness. Would you say that LiteStep's learning
> curve/efficiency-efficacy ratio is longer and broader than that of
> others? Why is that?

I do a lot of my routine tasks with hotkeys and gestures, and I 
segregate various functions on separate virtual desktops. I may have 20+ 
windows open at one time (email, browser, file manager, several editor 
windows, an interactive modeling tool with many individual graphic 
windows, etc.). LS helps me keep things organized and usable. Alt+tab is 
*not* the way to manage that type of complexity, IMO! I can change the 
look of the whole mess by simply clicking on a popup entry to alter my 
theme or my color scheme. Sure, other programs can perform some of those 
tasks, and in some cases they do a little better job at a particular 
thing. Nothing pulls it all together like LS.

If you've had some experience in a linux environment, particularly 
hacking about with xwindows config files, then you'll not find LS to be 
too intimidating. If you've had some experience with a programming 
language (compiled or otherwise), then you'll not find LS to be too 
difficult to learn. If the learning curve is longer than those "other" 
tools, it's because the feature list is correspondingly long. Is there a 
feature you think is missing? Then write it yourself! (if you can't get 
Andymon to do it first, of course =P )

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