Further questions about altering sims' appearance

[Snuffle]

I apologise if this repeats any other old posts.  The ones I found answered part of my questions but I'm still curious about other aspects.

Just what I've read (and what little I've understood) about SimPE convinces me that it is not awesome.  In fact, now I'm rather afraid to use the SimSurgery, although I'm not sure exactly why other than 'it puts junk files in the game and borks things.'  I'm going to take this as a positive first step in learning how to avoid blowing up my computer.

Theo's alternate SimSurgery seems interesting, but I rather want my sims to have the recessive genes.  Also, I'm not sure if it's compatible with FT.  JM said in another post that I could extract the LXNR from my source's original file and splice it over the LXNR of my target.  Would that allow the recessive genes?  How do I go about finding and extracting the LXNR?  Is this something that someone such as myself* can handle doing, or should I stick to SimPE and continue searching MATY for fixes to remove the garbage this puts into my game?

On a somewhat related note, is there a thread here (or a link anyone knows) that could give me the basics of hacking terminology?  Not anything so complex that I could learn to do these things myself - not yet, anyway - but just so I can understand a little of what's involved.  Part of my confusion comes from the fact that I don't understand half the words and letter strings you guys use. 

*hides in a cardboard box to avoid being pelted with rotten fruit and fish parts*

Thank you in advance,
Tika

*Myself has decent computer knowledge but no hacking skills whatsoever.  She knows enough to avoid causing the BFBVFS but not enough to keep from inflicting minor but increasingly annoying borks in her Sims2 game.

[danicast]

Simsurgery is no more than a copy and paste function. Is no big deal. Works better than some hacks that claim to do the same. I saw people complaining about some of those hacks because the sims appearance reverts to what was before the change. At least with simsurgery the changes are permanent. And if don´t d this in thousands sims doesn´t have a big bad effect.
What I find rather stupid in siumsurgery is that you need to create another sim to use as model or use a previous existent sim, makes the whole operation pointless.

About the other questions you have, my best suggestion is: read tutorials. Moar, better.

[Gwill]

What I find rather stupid in siumsurgery is that you need to create another sim to use as model or use a previous existent sim, makes the whole operation pointless.

That's where Theo's tool comes in.

I can't help with most of your questions, I haven't experimented much with sim genetics.  I think there is a bit of terminology in the MATY FAQ.  Depends a bit on what terms it is you're wondering about, some are Sims- or even MATY-specific, but many terms can easily be googled.

[Snuffle]

Thank you both for your quick responses.  This tells me I need to check postys more often.

So, does Theo's simsurgery work with FT?  Mine keeps crashing, even with no CC in there and, as yet, no use of SimPE, so I'm leery of using anything with the game until I'm reasonably sure it'll work without adding buggly bits.  Figures my favorite ep (one that actually has things my sims will use) would be the one to crash without warning on me.

Yay, tutorials.  I read the FAQ here several times, so I guess I'll just have to traipse about and find other, more specific ones.  Perhaps I will even win at Google.   

Tootles,
Tika