Which one - Visual Studio 2003 or 2005?

[Guest]

We have a developer who has made an application in Visual Studio 2003 and
this will not work in our version of Visual Studio 2002.

Error message:
Solution file loading error: The selected file is not a valid Visual Studio
Solution file.

When we try to load a project file, we get:

Unable to read the project file. The project was created with a newer
version of Visual Studio which is incompatible with your version. You can
only open this project with newer versions of Visual Studio.

So the question is:

If we buy Visual Studio 2005, is it backward compatible to open up a
solution created in VStudio 2003? Our current version is 2002.

S

 

[Mattias Sjögren]

If we buy Visual Studio 2005, is it backward compatible to open up a
solution created in VStudio 2003? Our current version is 2002.

VS2005 can open and convert VS2003 projects and solutions, but the
opposite will not work.


Mattias

 

[Patrice]

Each version of VS.NET targets a specific framework :
- VS 2002 creates .NET 1.0 applications
- VS 2003 creates 1.1 applications
- VS 2005 creates 2.0 applications

So you could load this application with VS.NET 2005, but what do you want to
do then ? It will upgrade this application to .NET 2.0...

 

[Guest]

I had a similar problem with the 2005 version going to the 2005 beta version.
I was able to do it like so:
Steps:
Create a new project
copy code over for each file
copy all the resources
recompile. YOu've just ported the code into 2002.

In your case, If you used any 2003 features you're toast though.

 

[Mark Miller]

We have a developer who has made an application in Visual Studio 2003 and
this will not work in our version of Visual Studio 2002.

Error message:
Solution file loading error: The selected file is not a valid Visual
Studio
Solution file.

When we try to load a project file, we get:

Unable to read the project file. The project was created with a newer
version of Visual Studio which is incompatible with your version. You can
only open this project with newer versions of Visual Studio.

So the question is:

If we buy Visual Studio 2005, is it backward compatible to open up a
solution created in VStudio 2003? Our current version is 2002.

A solution file just tells VS how to build the project. You can recreate it
by going into VS 2002, creating a blank or standard project. Delete the
boilerplate files out of the solution that you don't need, and then add in
the files from your project. Make sure any solution/project properties you
have in VS 2003 are reflected in your VS 2002 project.

In terms of .Net source code .Net 1.0 and 1.1 were pretty close to each
other. There were some small differences. Overall you should be alright.

I'm sure that VS 2005 will read your VS 2003 solution files fine. I'm just
guessing but I don't see why it wouldn't also read your VS 2002 solution
files fine as well. As with your experience, once you upgrade your solution
files to VS 2005, you can't take them back to 2003 or 2002. So if you hate
having to recreate them from scratch, keep backups of your old solution
files.

I can't speak for code compatibility with VS 2005/.Net 2.0. I've heard there
are some things in .Net 2.0 that are backward compatible with older versions
of .Net, but I don't have experience migrating a project over to it.

---Mark