Preview of vesion 5.12

[stan]

Hi all,

I've almost finished Expert Lotto version 5.12. You can download a preview of this new release here: ZIP, Windows installer, Linux installer, Mac OSX installer.
Feature-wise this release is on par with the current version 5.11, all the changes I did were under the hood in the platform libraries to make the application compatible with the latest Java runtime releases (the current version doesn't run with Java runtime newer than 1.8 ).
I would be very grateful if you could try it out and report any issues or problems you encounter - you can either comment here or email me directly. The installer may not work as most of you have version 5.11 already installed and the installer should detect that and refuse to install. But you can still download the ZIP distribution, unpack it and then run it from its 'bin' sub-folder. Version 5.12 should pick up all your settings and preferences (including license keys) you currently have in your version 5.11.

[exoterikos]

Hi Stan. I did a first quick test of version 5.12. Of course, as time goes on, the test will become more detailed. I don't know if it's just my idea, but I think this version seems faster than the previous one. I'm using windows 11. I run version 5.12 from 'bin' sub-folder. All the filters open correctly, but I have not yet verified the results, in order to find out if the calculations are done correctly.
Then tried to use the system folders and files from the previous version. I mean I loaded the lottery and tried to load the systems I made using the previous version. I found out that I cannot load the systems I had built with the previous version.png1.These few from the first test !Cheers!

1.png

[feelinLucky]

Hi Stan, Glad to see that you are still working on this great software. I was hoping to slip in a small request while you are under the hood working with EL. A while back you added an export feature for me to Include or exclude row headers. Is it possible to also add the same feature for the column headers. I do quite a bit of exporting to other programs and frequently have to strip the headers off. This would really make life easier. Thanks in advance.

[stan]

Hi Stan. I did a first quick test of version 5.12. Of course, as time goes on, the test will become more detailed. I don't know if it's just my idea, but I think this version seems faster than the previous one. I'm using windows 11. I run version 5.12 from 'bin' sub-folder. All the filters open correctly, but I have not yet verified the results, in order to find out if the calculations are done correctly.
Then tried to use the system folders and files from the previous version. I mean I loaded the lottery and tried to load the systems I made using the previous version. I found out that I cannot load the systems I had built with the previous version.png1.These few from the first test !Cheers!

If the software seems faster then it must be because you've switched to a newer Java runtime because the application functions are more or less the same.
If you can't open some previously saved assets then you may need to reinstall some addtional plugins. Version 5.12 has a different folder where the extra plugins are stored.

[stan]

Is it possible to also add the same feature for the column headers.

Will do

[tdnl46w]

Hi Stan.

I did some limited testing with version 5.12 and here are some issues I found so far.

Testing info for version 5.12.
-----
* Windows 10 Home 22H2(amd64) and system is up to date.
* JDK 21 installed and confirmed working with another program(LibreOffice).
* Expert Lotto Demo 6/49 was used in the tests.
* No extra community plugins or .config files were installed, and everything else(i.e. GUI) was left at default settings.
* Tested using the expertlotto.zip file, then bin folder expertlotto64.exe version, with and without the older Java 8 or version 5.11 installed.

EL version 5.12.
-----
- Running 5.12 version still shows "Version 5.11" on the loading screen and in the App Log, but only if you have version 5.11 still installed.
- At the bottom right of the main program window, there is sometimes a red error icon that appears, and when you click on it shows the message; "Unexpected Exception" Cannot invoke "...string of text here..." is null.
- Properties[Winning Numbers], Properties[Package], Charts [Winning Numbers] tab windows do not display any information.
- Tools -> Options -> buttons for "Miscellaneous", "Statistics", "Number Coloring" (etc.), either won't work at all or it takes multiple mouse clicks to partially work(remnants of previous windows overlapping). The sub menus under these buttons also have similar issues depending on what button is used.
- Running 5.12 version affects the 5.11 version in some ways(tabs/open windows etc.). Example. Running 5.12 will close any opened complex filers, custom analyzers that were open in the 5.11 version.
- File-> Open File... browse for a 'Complex Filter' or 'Custom Analyzer' results in the message "Error while loading content".
- The 'Select' buttons in many feature windows do not restore the previous selections when reopening the program. The selections revert back to the default 10 selected draws.
- Winning Numbers-> Predictions... and then running a prediction does not display anything(SEVERE [Global] error in the App Log view),...however the History-> Predictions... does work.
- Copy/Paste from the Ticket Analyzer to a Complex Filter doesn't work.
- Copy/Paste from a Complex Filter to a Custom Analyzer doesn't work.
- Complex Filter -> Performance not working.

EL website 5.12 info.
-----
- On the EL web page for News it says; "Due to incompatibility reasons it is NOT possible to use menu Help - Check for updates to upgrade." Will there be a new full program license in the future for users with older versions than 5.12? Currently, you can only register the 5.12 version by having an older version installed. This means you must have two separate versions of Java and Expert Lotto to use 5.12 as a registered user.
- On the EL web page for Downloads the Java links go to Java.com which does not have Java 17 or higher. Suggest a new download link to Oracle.com for the JDK version downloads.

These are just some of the issues I was able to confirm. I'm guessing something on my system may not be supported or I downloaded the wrong Java version(?). I'm currently using the JDK 21(LTS) version and I found it to be noticeably faster and more responsive than Java 8 on my system. Let me know what email address you want me to send a 5.12 application log to. Thanks.

[stan]

Thank you very for thorough testing! I'll fix those issue and upload a new version in a few days.

[stan]

It's fixed now, please give it another shot.
But you need to download the ZIP archive again as I had to make a change in a file that is not updatable via the normal plugin update system.

[tdnl46w]

Hi Stan.

Thank you very much for fixing these issues! Everything is working much better now. There are a few more minor issues;

- File-> Open File.... If you are using a 'Complex Filter' or 'Custom Analyzer' that was created in version 5.11, it will come up with a message that says; Cannot open content. Content in "filename" is not compatible with current lottery.

- Running 5.12 version still shows "Version 5.11" when loading on the start screen and in the App Log, but only if you have version 5.11 still installed.
What I did to avoid this was to just uninstall Java 8 and EL 5.11.

- Tools -> Plugins, does not install/list any extra plugins(e.g. Automation, etc.)
It shows the download and updating messages and says it successfully installed the plugin(s), but no plugins display in the filter listing after. This was working before I uninstalled version 5.11.

- On the EL web page for Downloads the Java links go to Java.com which does not have Java 17 or higher. Suggest a new download link to Oracle.com for the JDK version downloads.
Just FYI for anyone reading on where to find Java 17 or higher. Go to Oracle.com, then click on 'Products'-> 'Java'-> 'Download Java' button. On the download page choose the JDK 21(or other as needed) and then choose your OS version and installer(I chose the 'x64 installer' for Windows).

In this version, there also seems to be a slight change in the GUI font scaling(maybe just my system?) but it looks good. I also ran some benchmarks, and version 5.12 appears to be between 7% to over 20% faster depending on the filter.

[stan]

Thank you again for your valuable feedback!

- File-> Open File.... If you are using a 'Complex Filter' or 'Custom Analyzer' that was created in version 5.11, it will come up with a message that says; Cannot open content. Content in "filename" is not compatible with current lottery.

It's fixed now.

- Running 5.12 version still shows "Version 5.11" when loading on the start screen and in the App Log, but only if you have version 5.11 still installed.
What I did to avoid this was to just uninstall Java 8 and EL 5.11.

It's also fixed. The drawback is that you need to activate your license keys again as version 5.12 and older versions store their settings in separate locations.

- Tools -> Plugins, does not install/list any extra plugins(e.g. Automation, etc.)
It shows the download and updating messages and says it successfully installed the plugin(s), but no plugins display in the filter listing after. This was working before I uninstalled version 5.11.

Fixed.

- On the EL web page for Downloads the Java links go to Java.com which does not have Java 17 or higher. Suggest a new download link to Oracle.com for the JDK version downloads.
Just FYI for anyone reading on where to find Java 17 or higher. Go to Oracle.com, then click on 'Products'-> 'Java'-> 'Download Java' button. On the download page choose the JDK 21(or other as needed) and then choose your OS version and installer(I chose the 'x64 installer' for Windows).

Good point! I changed the web site to point to Oracle Java download instead of java.com

In this version, there also seems to be a slight change in the GUI font scaling(maybe just my system?) but it looks good. I also ran some benchmarks, and version 5.12 appears to be between 7% to over 20% faster depending on the filter.

I didn't change the application logic so if there is any performance improvement it must be due to the new Java runtime.

[rol24]

Hi, how are you? To understand how to update to the new version, I must first uninstall the entire previous version 5.11 (is the previous lotteries folder also backed up?),
then install version 5.12 from scratch, then add the license of the previous version and then update the latest JAVA version. Is this correct?
Thank you very much.

[stan]

You can keep current version of Expert Lotto and have the new version 5.12 installed side-by-side. The lotteries folders are stored separately so will be shared by both versions, only application settings are separated so you will need to activate your key(s) again.

[tdnl46w]

Here is the basic information to upgrade and register Expert Lotto version 5.12.
----
1. Download and install the Java "JDK 21" from Oracle.com.
2. Download and install Expert Lotto 5.12 and run the program.
3a. If you have a registration license key with an expiration date of December 8th 2024 or later, then you can enter that in the program.
3b. If you have a registration license key with an expiration date earlier than December 8th 2024, then you will need to purchase a renewal license key to register version 5.12. Once you have a new renewal license key,...in the program you will have to enter your registration key first(which will show as "Expired"), and then just continue to where it says-> "I already have application updates renewal key." which should be enabled by default. Then click on the [Next] button and now enter the renewal license key and it should be accepted.

Note: The 30 day trial version may also follow these activation steps, but Stan or someone else will have to confirm.

As you can see in the steps above, to register version 5.12 you are no longer required to have an older version of Expert Lotto installed. This is because the older versions upgrade feature option is not currently compatible to upgrade to Java 21. So you have the option to uninstall older versions of Expert Lotto after you have a new license key for version 5.12. Just make sure when uninstalling any program, to backup any related files you created to ensure they are not deleted in the uninstall. For Expert Lotto this would be something like a preset lotto folder, complex filters, or filter text files(etc.). When you run version 5.12 again, you can just redirect any features in the program to use the older(or newer) lotto related locations.

[tdnl46w]

- Tools -> Plugins, does not install/list any extra plugins(e.g. Automation, etc.)It shows the download and updating messages and says it successfully installed the plugin(s), but no plugins display in the filter listing after. This was working before I uninstalled version 5.11.
Fixed.

This is still not working in version 5.12[241228]. It is only showing that you can install Meta Trader Integration and Automation, but they still will not install.

Just FYI-> Using a Complex Filter from the previous version(e.g.5.11), if there are missing plugins filters listed in any filter groups(because they're not installed yet), then the 'Back-test' feature will not work. If you remove all missing plugin filters, then it will work as usual.

[stan]

Unless you're running the development version of 5.12 you need to add and enable additional plugin sources (https://www.expertlotto.com/files/uc/ex ... pdates.xml and https://www.expertlotto.com/external/fi ... pdates.xml), use menu Tools - Plugins - Settings.