:: Shell-Shocked :: Theme: Amiga HLE v1.0 by starfire

title	Amiga HLE v1.0 RC6
author	starfire
download	litestep.net
shell	Litestep
compliance	OTS
reviewer	143lsstep

Additional reviewer notes ::
Platform: Windows XP
Resolution: 1280 x 1024

General Information ::
Extra Requirements: Latest IndieStep Build Recommended
Theme Style: Horizontal Bar
Resolution: All
Extra Goodies: Bsetroot (random gradient wallpaper generator from blackbox for windows), wallpaper, tinsplash screenie.
Third party modules used : syscolor, liteman, textedit2, grdtransparent, tasks, taskbar3, label, jamptoo, geekamp, rabidvwm, lsbox, zorder and mzscript.

Introduction ::

Well first of all you must be wondering what HLE stands for -- it's for "High Level Environment". Amiga HLE, if I remember correctly, first appeared on litestep.net way way back ... then litestep.net went down and everyone knows what happened then (good to see it return!). I haven't seen this theme until now. I saw it recently on lsthemes.com. I was excited to see it and immediately started tinkering with it. Read the review and delve into this masterpiece.

Category :: Installation ::

It has been a while since I have seen someone spending so much time on the readme file - something themers often neglect. It is very detailed and gives you every bit of information you need to get started with the theme. Installation is very simple and there is no need to edit any *.rc files.

Score :: 10 of 10 .

Category :: Graphics ::

Extremely cool graphics. Very simple actually but still very cool. The popup menu is probably the best I have seen in any theme for a while.

Score :: 8.5 of 10 .

Category :: Originality ::

Amiga HLE quite obviously is based on the Amiga OS so won't get full marks for originality. I have never seen or used the Amiga OS so I don't know much about it. But the theme definitely feels good.

Score :: 8 of 10 .

Category :: Control ::

You can get to the options menu by [Shift] + Left Clicking on the desktop. This is now being followed by many as a standard and in my opinion it's actually very nice as it helps those of us who have never looked at the readme file (where do you think RTFM originated from?). starfire has done a good job managing desk-space yet still provides us with all the extra bells and whistles we like.

Score :: 9 of 10 .

Category :: Stability ::

There were certain issues with the clock module in RC3, but it has been fixed now. It has crashed on me occasionally but I don't think it's because of its rash driving, rather maybe I was walking on the middle of the road... :).

Score :: 9.5 of 10 .

Category :: Ease of Use ::

Aah ... piece of cake. Everything is so well placed that it's very easy to pick up, especially for newbies who are now finally moving away from their fruity XP colours (he he). I'd recommend this as a good starting theme.

Score :: 8 of 10 .

Category :: Specifics ::

The popup is one amazing feature of this theme. The chessboard type top popup image with transparency on looks simply fantastic. That was the first thing that caught my eye. See for yourself:

There are loads of options for you to choose and customize the look and feel of the theme. One particular option, "enable/disable resolution change on recycle" is really good to have. I have seen newbies complaining about games abruptly jumping back to the desktop when using litestep, and this option helps to alleviate this somewhat.

Four RabidVWM's are provided in four different styles i.e. popup menu, blackbox, boxed and simple. My personal favourite is the blackbox one.

Two colour schemes are included in RC6 - Blue and Purple. Both look amazing ...The shots so far use the blue scheme - have a look at the purple:

Bsetroot??? Those of you not "in the know" might be wondering what the heck that is! Well it's an added goodie which comes with this theme. Its from blackbox for Windows. Simply put, it generates gradient wallpapers. I bet you're going to give this theme a go just to see that in action :).

A tinsplash screen is also included. If you'd rather not see it you can disable it from the theme options popup.

Score :: 9 of 10 .

Category :: Under the Bells and Whistles ::

Very nicely edited config and *.rc files. In fact starfire has written small comments so as to make it clear what his particular code does and why it has been done. Very cool... This makes the theme valuable as a learning tool. It's certainly nice to see someone taking the extra effort to do this sort of thing.

Score :: 10 of 10 .

Category :: Final Words ::

This is one heck of a theme and everybody especially those who are planning to move over to LiteStep should definitely give this one a try! It's more than worth it!

Personal Rating :: 9 of 10 .

:: OVERALL RATING ::

81 of 90.0
Excellent

Category :: Theme Author's words ::

Written by starfire:
Firstly, thanks for reviewing my theme. I hope it's in a useable state by now. :)

With AmigaHLE, I wanted to design a complex theme, that would be easy to use for beginners but powerful enough for professional users. Looking at various desktops, from KDE and Gnome to AmigaOS and QNX, I took those ideas that I liked best and tried to make them all fit together.

As I am an Amiga user at heart, I think it made sense to place the bar at the top of the screen, and taking some graphics from a previous project of mine that was never released. I think it turned out pretty good.

In addition, AmigaHLE is my way of making a useable demo of what I think a next-generation AmigaOS should look like (I hope someone from Amiga Inc. is looking :) ). I've made a lot of mockup screens for that purpose, and AmigaHLE started out the same way. Now it's on its way to becoming a complete desktop environment. I guess that goes to show, one never knows at the start of a project exactly where it's going to end.