Service Bus System requirement

Question

The documentation states:

 

In order to run a Service Bus client or service application, you need to have the following:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 or higher

Does it mean my application (developed with July CTP SDK) will no longer work in Win XP SP 2? 

.Net 3.5 only require XP SP 2, why Service Bus requires SP3?

Also, when .Net 4 is released next year, will .Net Services support only .Net 4? or offer SDK for .Net 3.5 and .Net 4 together?

Answer 1

Hello, while I haven't tested it, you should be able to use .NET Services on Windows XP SP2, because the only requirement is .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

Currently we're building against .NET 3.5, so the first released version will support .NET 3.5. Since .NET 4 is backward compatible, you can also use .NET Services in a .NET 4 solution. Future versions of .NET Services may drop the support for .NET 3.5 (just like our first version dows not support .NET 2.0), but that's still under discussion.

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Answer 2

I tested it on Windows XP SP2, and the service bus application works properly. So, the documentation is not accurate.

Although I expect my existing service bus coding will involve very little modification when migrating to .Net 4 in the future, but we will still facing problems in upgrading other related class libraries / WPF / Winforms exe to .Net 4 just because the System.ServiceBus.dll is a .Net 4 assembly.

So, I believe the dual support for .net 3.5 and .net 4 is very important, especially within the first year .Net 4 is released.

Answer 3

Yes, the first release (and possibly the first few releases) of .NET Services will support both .NET 3.5 and 4. But starting from one release, we may decide to support .NET 4 or maybe 5 only, due to more and more people migrating to the new framework, and the fact that some features may require the support from a newer framework. We don't have a road map about this yet. But we don't promise .NET 3.5 will be supported forever.

Regarding migrating existing code to .NET 4, yes, normally you don't need to do any modification, because .NET 4 is almost 100% backward compatible. It is just to truely take advantage of the new framework, you may have to rewrite some part of your solution. For example, while WF 3.5's programming model is still supported in .NET 4, the WF 4's more advanced programming model is recommended for new applications, or if you want to make your existing application more performant and more integrated to other parts of the system.

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Lante, shanaolanxing This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.