Backwards Compatibility Statement

Question

 

Does anyone know if .NET 3.5 framework is backwards compatible with 2.0 and 1.1?  Additionally Does anyone know if 2.0 is backwards compatible with 1.1?  I was hoping to find an official microsoft document to let me know if I should move forward with upgrades.  I know that I can run 2.0 along side of 1.1, but not sure about 3.5, and I'd like to know as much about compatibility issues as possible.  And I'm not sure if 3.5 is better to go with than 2.0, etc..

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

.NET 3.5 is an interesting case.  It's not a new framework version, but rather an extension of .NET 3.0, which itself is an extension of .NET 2.0.  So .NET 3.5 = 2.0 + 3.0 + 3.5 all in one (large) package.

.NET 1.1 and 1.0 are separate things, though.

From the very beginning, Microsoft stated they intended to have side-by-side installation support for the .NET framework.  However, there is no guarantee of compatibility within the framework itself... so a 1.1 app may not work if only .NET 2.0 is installed.  The side-by-side guarantee is specifically to enable them to make breaking changes between versions.

-Ryan / Kardax