Updating Java libraries

[Michael Lam]

I would like to update some of the Java libraries used, starting with 
hsqldb. Is there any preference to getting the source and building the 
jar or just grabbing the jar from the project site? There are four BZ 
issues in reference to hsqldb with patches, I am going to test the new 
version to make sure those issues are resolved but they are very old. 
Should I open another issue for this?

Is there any recommendation/objection on this? After hsqldb I would like 
to move on to lucene.

Just a general question, there are many old issues on BZ for example 
there are 96 for hsqldb but most of them are from 2006 and is referring 
to an old version of OpenOffice, would it be possible to close very old 
issues?

Michael