Java 21

[chocola...@gmail.com]

As Java ages, like everything else, bits start to fall off. With Java 21, the most recent LTS release, an API which Polarbar uses has been removed.

With that one exception, Polarbar still works with Java 21. Specifically, Polarbar may get an UnsuportedOperationException. This won't affect all users of Polarbar, and for those it does affect, there's a probable solution: use the JavaMail drivers for the sending and receiving servers instead of Polarbar's own drivers.

Unfortunately, although I know that recent Javamail drivers work with Java 21, I don't know whether or not older Javamail drivers avoid the problem. The recent ones, however, don't come with Polarbar, and I've not tried retrofitting them to an existing Polarbar. (Javamail is now called Jakarta mail, just to add a degree of confusion.)

Retrofitting would at minimum involve replacing the Javamail jar with the equivalent Jakarta one, and updating the manifest in the Polarbar jar. I hope the older Javamail drivers work, and no-one needs to attempt this fix-up!

[Carl Miller]

I've already switched JavaMail to the newer Jakarta packaging in 2.x. There is a release with simply the packaging changes in them, nothing else, which is totally compatible with PBM. Simple find and replace fixed the code.

I find some of your comments funny because unlike Windows, where practically every *major* release either requires new hardware of updated apps, Java has been plugging along quite well in terms of forward compatibility. Of course every technology will hit a point where things have to change under the covers and that creates the incompatibilities we've seen with Java, but come on, it's nothing like other technologies that are out there. Heck, even the Linux kernel got to a point where version B was no longer compatible with version A.

BTW, your change related to UTC broke one of the JUnit testers - are you planning on fixing it? 

Carl

If ind 

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[WildWilly]

I recently (beginning early December 2023) got rid of my W7 computer, built a new computer, & installed W11 on it.  Clean install.  I also installed JDK 18 (version 18+36-2087 dated 2022/3/22) & JFX SDK 17.0.8.  I got Java from jdk.java.net & JFX from Gluon.  I think.  Those are my bread crumbs.  I'm too lazy to actually visit the sites at the moment & verify all that.  In any case, this configuration runs plain old PBM 1.27 CI-799 build 2329 just fine.  I don't believe this is the absolute latest build up on the PBM web site but I think it's pretty close.  I vaguely recall deciding that the handful of changes that had occurred after this build weren't worth it for me to get any newer version.  I don't remember when I decided that.  I haven't been on the Jira site in also longer than I can remember.

Seems to me when I was deciding which Java to get on, that J21 seemed a bit too leading edge for my taste.  J18 & JFX17 appeared to be the most recent long-term supported versions.  The newer ones seemed to be labelled more experimental or pre-release.  So until PBM 2 lands in our hands, I can say that J18 is perfectly compatible with PBM 1.  And yes, I do use the JavaMail server definitions because that's what works with GMail, which is now my E-mail service.  I avoid using the GMail interface in Firefox.  It's so ugly & clumsy.  PBM interfaces with GMail well enough.  There are some limitations & quirks but it works fine.  Seems to me I posted a thread in here about all the follies I encountered getting PBM to work with GMail, if you're interested.

So my take is you just might be pushing the envelope by going so far as J21.  If I were you, I'd stick with J18 for the time being.  That's certainly what I'm going to do.  We all need to accept the fact that PBM 1 development is arrested & work on PBM 2 is where effort is going to be expended.

[Carl Miller]

Ignore the comment about UTC changes, wrong thread...

Carl

[chocola...@gmail.com]

Is Polarbar 2.x even available for download?

In any case, swapping in the current Angus Mail, which is the Eclipse open source version of "Java" mail now, isn't possible for an existing Polarbar build due to package name changes. I am perfectly well aware it can be recompiled with appropriate source file changes to go with the new set of jars, but that isn't the same as retrofitting to an existing build, and is not going to help anyone who does not have access to a recompiled build. Not a problem as long as the old stuff still works of course.

My own version of Polarbar is now as stable as it has ever been, and is using Angus Mail with Java 21 (or 8.) I'm perfectly happy with it, so that's it from me. Over and out.

Graham.