State of the Step April 2008

Dear LiteSteppers,

When you least expect it... an update from your friendly LiteStep
Development Team:

Welcome to the April 2008 edition of the State of the Step!

On the agenda this time:

1. The Development Team
2. LiteStep vs. Litestep
3. LiteStep 0.24.8
4. Windows Vista
5. In Closing...

Go!

1. The Development Team
- A(nother) new lineup
-------------------------

Development at a snail's pace... and that's being nice. jugg and I
(ilmcuts) have been working on the core on and off, but that's hardly
enough to fulfill the expectations. Thus we went out recruiting people.
Of the several people we contacted, we are proud to announce that three
have accepted the offer. Welcome, Acidfire, Tobbe, and Xjill!

This means the devteam now is:

Acidfire
ilmcuts
jugg
Tobbe
Xjill

Even with the new lineup it will be very hard to follow through with
everything we need and would like to do. We're trying our best but very
much want and need any help we can get.  We hope that others we have
talked to will decide to work with us as well.  If you are interested in
being part of the team, please let us know!

We have also revived our contact mail address. You can now reach the LS
Development Team by writing to: devteam at lsdev.org.

2. LiteStep vs. Litestep
--------------------------

The ongoing, never ending debate.  Well, we hope to "officially" end it
once and for all.  We will be deciding on the LSDev Team official
capitalization of LiteSTEP before the next release.  So, if you have any
heart felt comments to add to the discussion now is the time do so.

3. LiteStep 0.24.8
--------------------

While we may have been quiet in terms of even experimental releases, our
CVS history reveals "+8946/-3915 lines changed" since June 01, 2007.
Note that this number includes documentation changes or copyright date
changes too. The change history since 0.24.7 is "+14949/-7705 lines
changed".

Unfortunately, the release of 0.24.8 has been held up. However, unless
you are on Vista, the experimental builds contain much of what is going
to be in the final. What is the problem, then? While we are no longer
striving for full Vista compatibility in this particular release (more
on that below), there are a couple of bugs that are just not acceptable
in a release. Missing volume controls may just barely be acceptable, but
broken startup applications or LiteStep crashing on startup is not.

Since the last experimental build, which contained the new math parser,
for example, we have continued to work on AppBar support, made sure that
Explorer will run if you boot into safe mode(*), have fixed numerous
small bugs, and some more, besides all the Vista changes. We're looking
at getting out a Beta release which will have all that but will not yet
have fixes for all known Vista issues. If we can't find the time to do a
proper Beta we will at least be posting another experimental build. If
you can't wait for that you're free to compile your own "nightly"
builds! Feel free to ask us for support if you need help doing that.

(*) We are starting Explorer in safe mode because you might be trying
to fix a broken LiteStep by going there. Lots of beginners use it when
they get scared after installing LiteStep and want to remove it again.

4. Windows Vista
------------------

In case there is any confusion, we're trying to make the usual 32-Bit
LiteStep work on both 32-Bit and 64-Bit Vista. While a 64-Bit LiteStep
has been compiled, it shares almost all problems of the 32-Bit version
and offers little in return. On top of that, it requires rebuilt
modules. So our focus for the foreseeable future will be on 32-Bit
LiteStep.

While LiteStep does somewhat work on Windows Vista as is, there are
several problems. For example, the welcome screen delay is back.  Some
startup apps are being run twice, some not at all. Tray tooltips are
broken and some tray icons like the volume icon don't appear at all.
LiteStep no longer detects if Explorer has already run startup apps and
vice versa. Some system sounds aren't being played. The wallpaper isn't
always shown, all you get is a black desktop. Etc. etc.

Unfortunately, for each issue that we fix another one or two are
uncovered. Trying to fix them all would hold up the release
indefinitely. But we're looking at fixing the worst of the issues. In
fact, except for the missing icons, we believe we can fix all of the
above. Given the history, however, it wouldn't surprise us if one or two
fixes didn't work out in the end.

Still, LiteStep 0.24.8 should be usable on Vista. Maybe not the Betas,
but the final release should.

4. In Closing...
------------------

This marks the end of this State of the Step. If you have any questions
or suggestions please feel free to respond via the LSML, IRC, or our
contact mail. We will be happy to talk to you.

Happy LiteStepping,
- The LiteStep Development Team

--- http://www.lsdev.org/
--- #lsdev on irc.freenode.org
--- devteam at lsdev.org

ps. I (jugg) am relaying this update from ilmcuts.
pps. I hope this spring is finding everyone well.

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