regarding Java 7

fronobulax

Developer
Staff member
Good question. I don't understand enough to answer, but am hoping JRE9 will let me have a usable mafia on my very high res laptop once supported !

Are you on Windows and using a manifest file? KoLmafia is quite usable with one on my 3840 x 2160. I suppose I should look for some of my investigations, if only to see if the Java bug was addressed in 9.
 

heeheehee

Developer
Staff member
What's the lowest version of Java that can connect to sourceforge, given their switch to https? Not supporting Java versions that are too old for that task seems reasonable.

I was under the impression that the Java version is irrelevant, since 90s-era cybersecurity laws are at fault.
 

Darzil

Developer
Are you on Windows and using a manifest file? KoLmafia is quite usable with one on my 3840 x 2160.
On Windows and not knowing enough about Java / Ant to know what a manifest file is.

Issue I get with my laptop is that some Mafia content (most text) is fine, and sizes are fine, but drop down boxes are half height and hard to read. I had read that this was due to lack of support from Java, and that 9 was planned to address it.
 

fronobulax

Developer
Staff member
On Windows and not knowing enough about Java / Ant to know what a manifest file is.

Issue I get with my laptop is that some Mafia content (most text) is fine, and sizes are fine, but drop down boxes are half height and hard to read. I had read that this was due to lack of support from Java, and that 9 was planned to address it.

We may have had this conversation before. Pre-Java 9, Java lied to Windows and said it could handle scaling on high DPI monitors when in reality it did not. Windows has some built in support for high DPI but it is not used because Windows thinks Java is handling it. There is a way to tell Windows to handle high DPI anyway, regardless of what the application says. That makes KoLmafia usable for me and my recollection is that it was pretty close to the non-high DPI experience. The fix is a manifest file. You tell Windows to use a manifest file, rather than the manifest built in to the application and then provide a manifest file for Java that says use Windows high DPI support unconditionally. This requires admin privs on the box to enable external manifests and then some kind of priv to drop the manifiest file in the Java bin directory. Only hiccups were tracking down which JRE was actually being used and then making sure the manifiest existed after Java upgrades.

The fix was supposed to be in Java 9 and what I have read suggests it is.

To the topic at hand, I have no problem with migrating development to Java 9, generating a 1.6 target and telling pre-1.6 users they need to upgrade. I do recall the days when supporting ancient versions of Java on user systems was a requirement but my recollection is that the justification was rooted in a user base that used Apple hardware and could not or would not upgrade the OS. I think the portion of he user base where that applies has gotten smaller, perhaps to the point of no longer existing.

But I have no problems staying with 1.5 and thus not moving to 9 if that is what other people prefer.
 

Theraze

Active member
Jason and hola were the two devs who used old macs, but I think they've officially wandered away from KoL since... and hopefully updated their computer in the past 7 years.
 
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