OE Classic discussions and updates

- New version of OEC PRO v3.1 available.

[2020-01-22] Improved IMAP folder handling and increased compatibility with various servers which have misbehaved
[2020-01-22] Updated SSL/TLS libraries with the latest bug/security fixes (v1.0.2u)

 

Thanks Willy. Glad to see those changes.
There were also a few very minor changes in the ReadMe file (the changelog). Some dates were there mentioned as 2018, and that was changed into 2019. Can happen
See screenshot of comparison, using Beyond Compare, of the ReadMe's of (left) 16 December 2019 and (right) 22 January 2020.
(note: it may look like those lines are truncated there, but Beyond Compare lets you see them fully)
(I hope it doesn't blow up the margins here).

 

New update for OEC Pro 3.1 - 2020-01-26
[2020-01-26] Automatically inserts locked IMAP folder when a folder is missing from the server

Here's some background info taken from Facebook a couple of minutes ago:

Source: https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic/

 

- Facebook now also provides more details on what the improvements were in the january 22, 2020 release.

 

Then a kind request: why don't you post it here (just like @Buddel did)? Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks @Buddel !

@Willy2 : I've replied your PM . I hope it answers your questions. You can always test in the test-forum:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/forums/test-forum.7/

 

- New version of OEC PRO 3.1 available.

[+] [2020-02-04] Modern folder selection dialog which also shows shared network locations/drives (only for Windows 7/8/10)

Spoiler

Quoted from Facebook:

Earlier versions of OE Classic used the classic (now legacy) style of disk folder selection, known from Windows XP days. There is no need to maintain that compatibility any longer and degrade the experience on newer Windows.

With today's update (v3.1, 2020-02-04) we've used the modern folder selection dialog which requires Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. So it doesn't work on Windows XP and older.

The new dialog (which is not really new, but is new in OE Classic), among other things also shows network shared drives and you can now save attachments onto your NAS (Network Attached Storage) or shared locations easier than before.

We also plan to introduce a few more modern dialogs in the following releases.

On Windows XP, the folder selection will continue to work, but in legacy mode. However, expect more tweaks which will optimize OE Classic's behavior on newer versions of Windows since those versions can offer more features we can utilize now to make it look nicer, make it easier to use and more accessible.

 

Thanks @Willy2 !
Will later upgrade.

 

- One Tony Sleep wrote on his Facebook page about his experiences with Outlook Express and Outlook Express Classic.

Spoiler

Quote:

"This isn't an ad, it's a public service announcement/review. I don't use Outlook Express, but I have had the extreme unpleasantness of trying to keep a couple of friends airborne for many years.

I hate OE6. Yes, it's easy, friendly and simple for users. But it has some truly dreadful engineering under the hood.

I've spent weeks (no exaggeration) repairing their installations, which has only been possible because of a military-grade backup regime to cope with its flaws, and tools for slowly and unreliably extracting emails from corrupted databases.

(My record with extraction from .dbx was 3 solid days of processing to recover an Inbox that OE6 had corrupted, for someone else. About half that time was de-duplicating and stripping corrupted mails. This was for someone who had 5 years of vital client emails explode. He hadn't bothered with backups, and knew nothing about the 2GB self-destruct routine).

Anyhow, my friends had an OE6 that had virtually ground to a halt, with many thousands of mails, endless 'compacting', and a WAB with 16,000 entries and dozens of groups.

Now, with extreme relief, I've finally helped them to escape thanks to the rather wonderful www.oeclassic.com

In look and function OEC is a clone of OE6 functionality, but under the skin it's utterly different. Crucially it is without OE6's storage limits and hideous serially- exploding binary mailstores. Like any sane mail client. mails are kept as text, with indexes.

The OEC Address book replicates XP's WAB, that does Groups (which absolutely nothing else quite achieves AFAIK). Unlike the WAB, it only runs in OEC, not standalone.

OEC imports mail and settings flawlessly from OE6. The only settings that don't get imported are mail rules - which were a right mess in OE6 and are far more logical in OEC.

The WAB imports too, but not Groups.

If you need Groups importing there is a good workaround that is easy if tedious. You do end up with Groups in the new OEC address book. FWIW I can see it would be possible to automate this method of WAB migration along with Groups, and it's on the OEC wishlist, but since it's a once-only task it's not too bad as a manual process unless you have dozens of Groups. We did, although I managed to persuade them to prune them from 100+ to 39. That was enough for me to wish it was automated. Frankly, if a version of OEC with WAB Group import cost twice as much, it would have been a bargain.

Still, once all the importing is done, it's totally portable to Win 10, or any other obsolete version just by copying a single user subfolder from the old machine to new. And data is exportable, so no lock in.

It's taken a 5-6 years to evolve, and is now almost complete. IMAP is now handled, more or less (work on folders is ongoing), which was a big sticking point for many. There seems to be only one missing ability (display and direct editing of Main Identity's Folders and Groups), but there's a tolerable workaround for that. The developer is IME very helpful and responsive. I've only found 1 (trivial) bug. You can try a free limited, version, the full version is about £25.

I had no idea OEC existed until 2 weeks ago when one of my OE6-victim friends discovered it. There must be hundreds of thousands of people still using OE6 on XP, which is like smoking cigarettes in a nitroglycerine factory. For God's sake, save yourselves. It is possible."

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/tony.sleep/posts/10158025692801407

(For those who don't hate Facebook)

 

OE Classic 3.1 Pro has just been updated:

• [2020-02-09] Improved accessibility for all message dialogs and no sound for Information dialogs (Windows 7/8/10 only)
• [2020-02-09] Default button changed to "Yes" in "Empty Deleted Items folder" (right click)

Here's some background info from Facebook:

Spoiler: Facebook info

Today's update of OE Classic (v3.1, 2020-02-09) improves accessibility and makes some small but rather important changes to some dialog boxes. We will also give you one nice trick in this post which you may find useful. These changes affect users of Windows Vista/7/8/10. Windows XP dialogs remain as before. So here are the changes:
- All the dialogs (popup message boxes) on newer Windows (Vista/7/8/10) are now standard Windows dialogs instead of our earlier custom dialog. This improves accessibility (support for screen-readers for blind or low vision users). Previously, these dialogs were shown as "blank" to the screen-reader users. Although they might look less nice (which is arguable) than the older dialogs, the accessibility is most definitely the important improvement here. If you are wondering why this only affects users of newer Windows - that is because Windows XP and older do not support this modern dialog type. OE Classic still works on XP, just without the added accessibility improvement.
- As a consequence, the dialogs can also be closed with the Esc key just like most windows in OE Classic. Previously, the Yes/No dialog had to be clicked on one of the buttons (this is actually standard behavior of the MessageBox in Windows, which we copied in our dialog). But the added ease of use is definitely convenient.
- Also, standard behavior of Windows "Information" dialog is to play a sound. Since Information dialogs are used for less important information (or a notification to the user) it was pretty annoying when a sound was played for each of these and some users pointed to this problem (if Windows sounds were enabled, as they are by default). So we've disabled the sound for Information dialog only. There is no change though to the "Warning" and "Error" dialogs - these are more important for user to read and still continue to play a standard Windows sound for a particular notification.
- Old dialogs might also have some issues with multi-monitor setups, popping up at incorrect position. These changed ones should popup centered to the previous window which opened them.
- Important change - with the above changes, we've made the "Empty Deleted Items folder" dialog less severe - instead of "Warning" type (warning sound + exclamation mark icon), it is now "Information" type (no sound + blue information icon, as shown in the picture). Also, the default button was changed to "Yes". We figured that emptying Deleted Items is not as severe operation and doesn't need to be labeled as warning and also, when the default button is set to "Yes" button, you can quickly press Enter key on keyboard to execute the action. This was the behavior which was used by Windows Live Mail.
Hopefully you will find these small, but rather important changes useful. For the end, we also promised to give you one small but rather useful trick - not just for OE Classic but Windows in general.
With each info/warning/error dialog in any program, Windows supports little known trick to copy the dialog text to clipboard. People usually retype the text down manually, or make a screenshot, but this can be made simpler by pressing CTRL + C (keyboard shortcut for "Copy") while the dialog is shown, which copies the whole text of the dialog to clipboard. So you don't have to type it, or screenshot it. After copying, you can paste the dialog text anywhere you want (for example, in an email).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic/

 

- And that version has some "language issues". When e.g. a german user chooses to use the english version then some dialog windows show up, not in english but in ........ german.

 

There was another update on 10 Feb 2020.
The ReadMe.txt files (the changelogs) for 9 Feb and 10 Feb are the same.
Maybe that issue you mentioned, was fixed? I don't know.

 

- In the last version more of the standard Windows dialog boxes / windows are used instead of the windows / boxes made by the developers of OEC. It means that OEC can employ some special build-in features / functionality from Windows itself.
- But using those standard Windows boxes have a drawback. Then the main text in the box is in the language of one's choosing in OEC (e.g. english, spanish, french etc.) but then the text on buttons like "OK", "Apply" & "Cancel" show up in the language of the Operating System (e.g. german).

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 was updated earlier today: [2020-02-12] Replaced misbehaving SQLite julianday() with better calculation
Source: https://www.oeclassic.com/news

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 - updated 2020-02-15

• [2020-02-15] Redo action and toolbar button available in the Message Editor
• [2020-02-15] Message Editor toolbar Undo/Redo/Cut/Copy/Paste/SelectAll are now enabled only if available (and not all the time)

Here's some more info taken from FB a couple of minutes ago:

Today's update of OE Classic 3.1 (2020-02-15) brings you:

- "Redo" action and toolbar button available in the Message Editor. To use it, you have to first right click the toolbar and choose "Customize..." as it is not added by default. Redo action will work in the Message Editor body and Source editor.

- Improved and localized popup menu for the Message Source Editor (Source tab). Previously the popup menu was always in English and had issues with high-DPI (menu items were crammed close together). Also, the items were sorted in wrong order (Copy/Cut/Paste instead of Cut/Copy/Paste), thus breaking the consistency.

- Message Editor toolbar Undo/Redo/Cut/Copy/Paste/SelectAll are now enabled only if they are available. Previously, they were enabled all the time, which was an eyesore for a long time, because we couldn't find a method to scan for their availability (which, clearly, we've learned now).

- Replaced misbehaving SQLite julianday() with improved calculation. Some spam messages with the date set to 9999-12-31 were sent recently and caused some issues in OE Classic message saving/importing as the julianday() in SQLite doesn't support dates after year 9999. When converted into different time zone, the year could flip to year 10000 which would trigger an error. All of this is now fixed.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic/

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 - updated 2020-02-17

• [2020-02-17] Improved accessibility for lists - message list, folder list, contact list
• [2020-02-17] Localized names for default IMAP folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted/Drafts)

Here's some more info (same FB source as above):

Today's update of OE Classic (v3.1, 2020-02-17, https://www.oeclassic.com/) brings you seemingly tiny but important improvements:

- Improved accessibility for lists - message list, folder list, contact list - This is a huge improvement for accessibility users (blind users). When using a screen-reader to narrate the contents of these lists, previously the lists were unrecognized (blank) for the screen reader. Not any longer - as they are now read properly and when keys are used to navigate (for example, arrow up/down) each individual item is narrated separately (which could be a folder name, a contact name or a subject line of a selected message).

It took us years to find the solution to this one! And just like in life, things come in waves - not just we've found the solution for this but also for a couple of other issues we've been searching for a solution for a very long time.

- Localized names for default IMAP folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted/Drafts) - Standard folder names such as Inbox are now localized into a selected language. The new names may not correspond to actual server names but OE Classic will still select correct server folder, regardless. Custom folders remain in the original names. This is shown in the screenshot. Additionally, the top folder bar (with blue gradient background) used to show names in English, which is now corrected as well and the selected language (French in this example) is used there as well.

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 - updated 2020-02-26 (bug fix)

[2020-02-26] Pressing Esc in the Message Editor To/Cc/Bcc fields could make the program unresponsive

 

Thanks Buddel.

PS:
There is a little change in the wording for the 2020-02-17 changes in the Changelog. They read now:
[2020-02-17] Improved accessibility for the message list, folder list and contact list
[2020-02-17] Localized names for default IMAP folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted/Drafts/Junk)

 

- New version of OEC v3.1 PRO available.

[2020-03-06] IMAP improvements for less capable servers which don't designate special folders

More details (from Facebook):

Spoiler

Today's release of OE Classic (v3.1, 2020-03-06, https://www.oeclassic.com/) brings some reliability updates and improved IMAP folder handling for less capable servers which don't designate special folders. So what does this mean?

Until now, OE Classic handled Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo folders well - they are all modern servers with modern IMAP specification and they designate special folders which are Sent, Trash, Spam and Drafts (Inbox also, but it is standard for all IMAP servers). But the less capable servers, they treat all the folders the same as non-special (general purpose). An example of such servers are the ones used by Time Warner Cable or Spectrum.

This created a problem - as OE Classic didn't know which folder is the "Deleted Items" folder, it couldn't delete messages and has reported an error. It could actually delete, if you used drag-and-drop on a message, but it didn't know where to move the message, if you pressed Delete button. So we've handled this as following:

a) First, while downloading the list of folders OE Classic uses special folder designation, if the server offers it. This was also done before but now is also slightly improved and works with many modern IMAP servers but not the above mentioned (TWC or Spectrum and some others).

b) Now, if there are no special folder designations, first it tries to play nice (unlike some other IMAP clients) and attempts to auto-detect special folders based on names, rather than brute-forcing its own names into the IMAP folder system (which is not nice, creates a mess). It currently only uses English names beginning with Sent (e.g. Sent, Sent Items, Sent-Items etc.), Deleted/Trash (e.g. Deleted, Deleted Items, Trash etc.), Draft (e.g. Draft, Drafts etc.), Junk/Spam/Bulk (e.g. Junk, Junk Email, Spam, Bulk Mail etc.). Whatever it finds in the root folder (but not in subfolders) it automatically designates as a special folder (just the first instance it finds). Since any IMAP folder can behave like a special folder it doesn't make any difference which one is chosen, it is a guess anyway, but an educated one so it should work well in most cases.

c) Finally, if it doesn't succeed in auto-detection, then it basically does what many other IMAP clients do - stops being nice and brute forces the names - creates missing IMAP folders. The names created are - Sent, Deleted, Drafts and Junk so the auto-detection above will pick them up if folder list is reset again.

To use this new change, if you already created an IMAP account with one of these providers, simply right click the account and choose "Reset IMAP Folder List" as shown on the screenshot. This is not needed when creating a new accounts or if using a modern IMAP server (in which case you don't have delete issue anyway).

 

- When I install a new version of OEC then I also compare the files of the old version with the files of the new version. That sometimes gives me a clue what has been changed in the program.

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 - updated 2020-03-07 (bug fix)

[2020-03-07] IMAP fixes for unrecognized message lists (1 fix added)

 

OE Classic Pro beta 3.1 - updated 2020-03-13

[+] = New feature
[b] = Bug fix

[+] [2020-03-13] Improved accessibility and localization for Send/Receive window
[b] [2020-03-13] Installation size was missing from Apps & Features

PS:
In the meanwhile Automatic Account Configuration (if a person need it) was added for these Dutch providers:
hccnet.nl , xs4all.nl and freedom.nl
Great support.

 

Thanks, @FanJ

Some more info from Facebook:

We'll challenge the fate with a quick Friday the 13th release of OE Classic (v3.1, 2020-03-13, https://www.oeclassic.com/) which brings you some bug fixes (installation size was missing from Apps & Features in Windows 10) and localized Send/Receive window (attention translators!). Also, improved accessibility for the Send/Receive window.

We've also removed the countdown behind the "Hide" button as it was confusing certain users. The countdown is still there, it is just moved to the bottom (status bar) of the same window and better labeled to make it clear it is window-closing countdown.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/oeclassic

 

OE Classic Pro 3.1 - updated 2020-03-16 (new features)

• [2020-03-16] Revised accelerator keys for Mark as read/unread
• [2020-03-16] Reset folder can also automatically repair folder corruption