This is the installation guide. *If you are reading it from the build in documentation inside the VCStudio. You probably don't need it already.* This is a guide that will allow users to understand how to put VCStudio on their machine. This is hopefully needed to be done ones. Tho some problems could occur that will make you need this document more then ones. Nobody is perfect. Software always will have bugs.
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This part will be basic. It's going to break up the step by step installation for simple user that doesn't want to know much. I will advice you to read the rest of the document anyway. Don't be afraid of knowledge.
**Step 2: Get a copy of VCStudio.** This is very simple. Just download [this file](https://notabug.org/jyamihud/VCStudio/archive/master.tar.gz). And extract it in a preferred folder. I usually have a Software directory in my home folder. I would extract it there.
**Step 3: Run configuration.** For this we need to open the terminal and navigate to the correct directory. The simple way is to right-click on the folder and choose "Open In Terminal" in order to get a terminal open in the directory of the folder. If you have no option like this in your file-browser, open the terminal and use the `cd <folder_name>` command to navigate to the folder where you extracted the downloaded package. `ls` could be handy to list all items in the current folder you are in. Use `cd ..` if you need to navigate back. When successfully navigated to the folder run `python3 run.py`.
I know that the previous paragraph could be a little bit intimidating. Especially if you are new to GNU / Linux. But please be patient. Terminal is your friend. It's not there to hurt you. It's just a bit different. You have to actually type words to use it. If you didn't get it. Read the previous paragraph again and pause after each sentence.
It should present you with something like this. Maybe in different colors. This is the Language menu of the program. Type `English` and continue. *Of course you can type any other language as well. But make sure you understand it before typing it.*
As soon as you type it. There will be a first check of the program. It's gonna run a quick test to see that all the files are indeed in the folder. And will tell you if something is missing or broken. Please [report](https://notabug.org/jyamihud/VCStudio/issues) if something is broken.
You may encounter various problems in the previous few steps. If you do you have to broaden your understanding of what exactly you are doing. This is not hard, but is not necessary for installation most of the time. So I didn't include it up there.
To understand the installation of VCStudio you need to understand a concept of scripts vs compiled software. Most software. Either the Linux kernel or Blender are compiled. The source code is read by a special program called a compiler and this program returns a binary file with contains direct instructions to the CPU. Which are extremely hard to read if you are a human. More often then not when installing software from the source code, from websites like NotABug or GitHub, you will need to run a special script that will do all the compilation and configuration for you.
On the other hand you have scripts. Which run directly from the source code in a program called the interpriter. Python is one such program. And the source code of VCStudio writen so to run in a Python 3 interpreter.
Most GNU / Linux Destributions will have it pre-installed with Python 3. You can see the version of the python installed by launching the terminal and typing `python3` into it. If it's not there. Please install it.
A lot of programs contain everything you need in them. But usually it's a huge waste of storage. Sometimes one library can be shared between 2 programs just fine. For example the GTK library to draw Graphical User Interfaces. It can be used by more then one program. And it's probably good to have one installed for all of them. Instead of having multiple copies of the same library for each program.
**Py-GTK** is a python module to draw GUI using a GTK library. To test that it is installed you can type `from gi.repository import Gtk` to the python console.
A warning such as `<stdin>:1: PyGIWarning:` is okay. As long it does not say something like `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'Gtk'`
Now you can start the installation guide again. This time with a lot more knowledge. But this is not the end still. Because the following chapter going to be even more insightful into your problem. Or if you have non, as I said. Don't be afraid of knowledge.
The best documentation is to read the code of the software directly. Here are the parts of VCStudio that are responsible for the disaster that is installation.
- [settings/update.data](../../settings/update.data) File with update information. But in this case a file that holds a list of all files in the VCStudio program.
Well at first. VCStudio is unsure of what language to use for the rest of the checking procedure. I would use English for the whole process. But I made myself use multi-language support as early as possible. And as weird as it might sound, some people just don't speak English.
In the [settings file](../../settings/settings.data) there is a variable for `Language`. If it's not there. Or set to `False`. It will fail the initial test. And run the [troubleshooter](../../troubleshooter/troubleshooter.py) .
Troubleshooter is a script to check / fix problems. Tho at the moment [fix.py](../../troubleshooter/fix.py) is empty of any functionality since there was no mistakes horrible enough found that troubleshooter should fix. This is why please [report your problems](https://notabug.org/jyamihud/VCStudio/issues).
- **Check VCStudio**. Checking all the files listed in [update.data](../../settings/update.data) that they exists and working. At this stage some files might fail without actually making too much problems. But these are fixes to make.
VCStudio adds it self into a system application menu. It does it using what's called a [Desktop Entry](https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/) that most GNU / Linux application launchers understand. This step is also done by the troubleshooter. But only if a folder `/home/username/.local/share/applications` exists. This is where most GNU/Linux systems store the `.desktop` files.
