Greetings,

JBidwatcher 2.0 is starting down the long process towards being released. There are a lot of features that will be going into this version, but most of them are under the covers. A substantial refactoring of the code has allowed me to add several major features and fix the behavior in many places. The changes include scripting, a good database underneath, better memory usage, a few new UI features (including a thumbnail view!), recognition of wake-from-sleep, better date and end-of-auction recognition.

JBidwatcher 2.x requires at least Java 1.5. This is available for Windows and Linux across the board, but it means that OS X 10.4 or later will be required for the Mac. I feel comfortable with two major versions back (So OS X 10.4 and 10.5, Java 1.5 and 1.6), as it combines the maximum number of people who will be able to use it, and a relatively usable development environment.

If you are interested in getting in on the alpha/beta process, please understand that the code is in flux right now. Some features may not work, and parts may be changed before the final release. The point is to get the parts that don’t work reported, so I know what I have to fix. And one more major thing; I’m still finalizing the data storage part. You may have to remove or back up your JBidwatcher data directory before installing the final version, if you run the beta.

The final version is intended to upgrade the 1.x data directories cleanly (and if the betas don’t, that’s something that needs to be reported!), but it will not necessarily upgrade 2.x-beta data cleanly.

So if you’re interested in trying the new code, make a backup of your JBidwatcher data first, so you can restore it before running the final version.

If I haven’t scared you off yet :), go ahead and email me at alpha2@jbidwatcher.com and when the next version is pushed out, I’ll send out an email to everyone interested.

— Morgan Schweers, Cyber*FOX*!