Code/Software Questions

[SpechtacularDave]

Hey!  Your lamp is very impressive.  I've used a store bought sunrise clock for years, but your design is worlds better than anything you can currently buy, so I want to make one.  Like you, I REALLY don't like waking up, so I think this will make it easier.  I'm thinking about using a Raspberry Pi 3B with APA102 LED strips (Adafruit calls these Dotstars).  I want to start with just the Pi and LED strips in a similar enclosure.  I plan to use external speakers via the 3.5mm jack, and add a time display later, which simplifies things for now.

I have a couple of questions about the software aspects mentioned in README.txt before I get started.

1)  For the Editor/PC and Pi requirements you have Python 2.7.9, Pillow 3.2.0, and Pygame 1.9.1.  Should I use these exact versions or the most up to date?  Currently that would be Python 3.6, Pillow 5, and Pygame 1.9.3

2)  For the Pi, you have Raspbian Wheezy/Jessie listed, any problem with using the current Stretch?  

3)  I was thinking about using APA102 LED strips instead of WS2812 to avoid disabling the 3.5mm audio jack due to timing/interrupts problems with WS2812 leds.  Any reasons your code is very specific to WS2812?  Or should I be fine with just swapping out to an APA102 library?

4)  In README.txt, under Installation (Raspberry Pi), it states "summary, check wiki/forum for detailed instructions".  Where are the detailed instructions?  I can't seem to find them.

5)  I'm pettty new to Raspberry Pi/Linux, but I've been playing around with Arduinos and LEDs for the past 6 months now.  If I get stuck on some aspect of the code of this project, would you be available via this forum to answer a couple of questions?

Really excited about this project.  Once I've got everything up and running I hope to contribute a theme of my own.  Thanks!