Hello,

Find below of a list of software updates, notes
about major changes in the JGoodies libs and apps,
the current roadmap, and license renewal information.


UPDATES
The following software updates have been published:
o Animation 1.2
o Looks 2.0.3
o UIF 1.6.0
o UIF Extras 1.6.0
o Validation 1.2 and 1.3
o Swing Suite 1.6.0
o BookFinder 0.9.8
o Updated tools and demos


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).
See also https://looks.dev.java.net/faq.html#3.3


MAJOR CHANGES
The Forms 1.0.7 fixes a show stopper for Turkish locales.
It is recommended to update your Forms version.

The Looks 2.0.3 has been improved for the Windows Vista
Beta2, and it works around a bug in Mustang (1.6.0) b88
that shall be fixed in the b91. The Mustang Beta2 is b86.
Plastic uses "Experience Royale" as default theme on XP,
if the "Royale" skin is active. Royale is a beautiful
XP theme that Microsoft provides at no charge.

The Validation 1.2 and 1.3 are a series of updates
towards a slightly cleaner API. It is recommended to
use the most recent 1.3 version, but 1.2 is available
at java.net for those who want more compatibility with
the 1.1.x series.

The UIF and UIF Extras now use the Looks 2.x API
and are binary incompatible with previous releases.
Both libraries contain a few more incompatibel changes,
and it is recommended to check their Release Notes.

A bug has been fixed in the Animation library that
may affect very short animations, like the blend-over
effect in the BookFinder's header. And the tutorial
has been overhauled.

The BookFinder has been synchronized with the current
Amazon.com web service; in other words, it works again.

All example applications have been updated to use
the recent JGoodies libraries. Actually the Animation
bug fix has made it only into the precompiled BookFinder.


DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
The sources for the UIF, UIF Extras, and Animation library
now ship as a source tree, not as a Zip archive.


DOWNLOADS
The Swing Suite 1.6 is available from the JGoodies
product download page; access is password protected
http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/products.html


ON SWING SUITE LICENSE RENEWALS
Your Swing Suite license does not expire, and a renewal
is not necessary. However, a renewal is appreciated
to finance the maintenance and further improvements
of the Swing Suite and open source JGoodies libraries.
Most changes in the Swing Suite 1.6 are in the open source
libraries that you can download at no charge from java.net.
The example apps didn't change that much. Except the BookFinder,
they primarily use the most recent libraries. And the new
BookFinder works, but the old is good for learning purposes.
Depending on the version you have, a renewal is more or less
interesting. Here's a table with the estimated update importance.
Importance to Update from Version:
1.5.0 - minor
1.4.1 - little
1.4.0 - medium
1.3.0 - significant


HOW TO RENEW A SWING SUITE LICENSE
You can order a 1-year Swing Suite license renewal online at:
http://www.jgoodies.com/products/purchase.html
The renewal products are still not configured as intended.
These are abonnements that you can cancel at any time,
where they should be a one-time payment like 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.


ROADMAP
The Looks 2.1 will implement my proposal for Java 7
regarding a customizable micro layout: insets,
component sizes, font baseline positions, etc.
If this will be accepted for Java 7, the changes
I made could be integrated into the Java 7 core.
Because the Looks 2.1 are then feature complete,
I consider dropping support for Java 1.4 after
version 2.1. Sun may backport Java 6 improvements
to the Java 1.5.0 update 8 or 9. These two things
together would significantly shrink down future
distributions of the JGoodies Looks.

The Forms 1.1 brings some bug fixes but focus on
improvements requested by vendors of visual builders.
I plan to ship version 1.1 by the end of August.
Version 1.2 shall offer new features: support for
perceived bounds, custom layout variables, and
customizable prototype strings in layout specs.

The next Binding versions shall get more tutorial
examples as part of my work in the expert group
of the JSR 295 "Beans Binding". I want to demonstrate
real-world problems the Binding already addresses,
to ensure that the JSR 295 reference implementation
can do, what the JGoodies Binding offers now.

The JGoodies UIF will follow the work made in the JSR 296,
"Swing Application Framework". I'm not allowed to disclose
information from the expert group, but most likely many
things will be made visible to the public as a project
at java.net. These features will make it into the UIF,
if they are not already included. Or the UIF may slightly
change to follow the JSR 296 RI syntax and wordings.
On the other hand, I will rename UIF features only,
if the JSR 296 RI is stable.

I plan to rewrite JDiskReport for Java 6. It shall be
easier to understand and shall get a more modern look.
Therefore I'll drop JPathReport and will then officially
include the BookFinder app as a Swing Suite example.


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