Hello,

Find below of a list of software updates, notes
about major changes in the JGoodies libs and apps,
and information about Swing Suite license renewals.


UPDATES
The following software updates have been published:
o Binding 1.1.1
o Looks 2.0.1
o UIF 1.5.0
o UIF Extras 1.5.0
o Swing Suite 1.5.0 Release Candidate
o Looks Demo 2.0.1
o Skeleton 1.8.0
o Skeleton Pro 1.8.0


IMPORTANT NOTE: To avoid duplicate and incompatible library
versions in your classpath, I recommend to remove library
jars from the Java extension directory (<jre-home>/lib/ext).
For more information on that issue see the Looks FAQ #1.7.


MAJOR CHANGES
The Swing Suite 1.5 Release Candidate is now available.
It is a stable build; if no show stopper comes up,
it'll be renamed and published as the Swing Suite 1.5.

The Swing Suite 1.5 RC includes the recent JGoodies libraries.
The Looks, Binding, and Validation updates contain binary
incompatible API changes. The Looks update may also change
the appearance of your applications. Find details in each
library project's Release Notes.

The Looks 2.0 leads to a better appearance on Java 5,
Java 6, with Windows Vista and in non-western environments.
It is strongly recommended to read the Looks 2.0 Release Notes.

The UIF, UIF Extras and all example apps have been refreshed
to work with the new Looks and Binding APIs. However, they
do not yet demonstrate all of the new library features.

The most visible change in the UIF Extras is the improved
body text font in JEditorPanes that display HTML:
license setup, tiny help, tip of the day.

Skeleton and Skeleton Pro now demonstrate how to validate
the editor content and how to veto against node changes.
The implementation does not use the JGoodies Validation;
it uses a simple minded plain validation.


DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
The sources for the Looks 2.0.1, Binding 1.1.1 and Validation 1.1
now ship as a source tree, not as a Zip archive. And these
distributions use the same directory structure as the CVS.
This makes it easier to build a customized version with ANT.

Also, the UIF and UIF-Extras are now located under "libraries",
not "framework".


DOWNLOADS
The Swing Suite 1.5 RC is available from the JGoodies
product download page; access is password protected
http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/products.html


ABOUT SWING SUITE LICENSE RENEWALS
Most changes in the Swing Suite 1.5 are in the open source
libraries that you can download at no charge from java.net.
The Swing Suite example applications have seen a large change
between the Swing Suite 1.3 and 1.4. In 1.5 the example apps
didn't change that much. They use the most recent libraries
and Skeleton (Pro) demonstrates how to hook in a validation.
And so, a license renewal is appreciated, not necessary.
You can order a 1-year Swing Suite license renewal online at:
http://www.jgoodies.com/products/purchase.html
Actually, the renewal products are not configured as intended.
The renewals are abonnements that you can cancel at any time,
where they should be a one-time payment as the base licenses.
I don't want to hook anybody into renewing the license.
Your initial Swing Suite purchase has already helped me
finance the JGoodies maintenance and support.
I'm so busy with the many changes made to the JGoodies libs,
that it'll take more time before I can change the renewal
product configuration; it has to be done by Element 5.


YOUR FEEDBACK
If you have questions or suggestions regarding
this mail, please post to the technical JGoodies list,
not to this low-traffic announcement list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JGoodies_unmoderated/


Best regards,
Karsten Lentzsch