Check C# code for .NET 1.1 compatibility - c#

I'm writing a C# class library, which will be used in a project that runs on .NET Framework 1.1. However, I'm using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010, which doesn't provide tooling for version 1.1.
Is there a static check that I can perform inside VS2010 to see that the code is 1.1 compatible?

The csc has the ability to check for syntax compatibility. Use the langversion flag in some post build step to check for program compatibility with ISO-1. I would recommend keeping a separate project for the .NET 1.1 library since the conventions after .NET 2.0 greatly diverge.

There is a problem in backward compatibility in .NET Framework if you build your application in .NET 4.0 than you can not except that this version will work in .NET 1.1 Framework.
A lot of functions are new or obsoleted.
I think a good idea is to build the project in differents target vesions.
Check this information:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602939.aspx

Related

What are the consequences of upgrading my .NET analyzer's target framework to .NET 5.0?

I have been writing an analyzer and using .NET Standard 2.0 so that I could target .NET Framework 4.7.2, which I was using in the VSIX version of the analyzer. Soon however I chose to drop it as supporting it was not beneficial. Ever since I have wanted to upgrade the supported framework to .NET 5.0 to also get the new language features along the path.
How would that affect the end users that would include the analyzer to their projects through the released NuGet package? Should I also keep supporting the older framework versions?
You can't use anything other than .NET Standard 2.0, because VS runs under .Net Framework 4.* and the csc Roslyn compiler runs under .Net 5/6. The common ground is .NET Standard 2.0, nothing else will work.
This is still the case with VS 2022, it is still a .Net Framework application, the only difference is that it's now a 64-bit process, which means that your analyzer needs to be Any CPU to work in both.

using newer target framework .net standard for a sub project in a .net framework solution

Whenever I'm creating a new solution with VS2017 I'm usually choosing one of the newer Frameworks as a target (most often currently 4.6.1).
Now though when I create a .dll Subproject within the solution it sets the target Framework for that subproject to .NET Standard 2.0. With that being the most "modern" target Framework that can be set.
This though has the Problem that I can't use some things I'm used to like "Resources.MyResource" (which works fine with Framework 4.6.1).
Now I'm wondering is there any way to rectify this Problem? Either by increasing the .NET Standard, or by enabling one to choose the .NET Framework also for These .dll Projects (aside from creating the .DLL Project outside the solution and then importing it into the solution)?
.Net Standard is a specification of the .NET API's that are available on all implementations of .NET.
What does this mean? - Calling an API in .Net Standard will run on all .Net versions that have implemented that version of the Standard.
SO what does that mean? - .Net Core introduces cross platform development. The need to now possibly share code between a Windows machine and a Linux box require a "standard" that can be implemented across all equally.
Think of it as a contract. If a version of .Net implements .Net Standard 2.0, it is saying that it will have a version of the API's in that standard available for use on all platforms.
So, back to your original question. .Net Standard 2.0 is not a "new" version of the framework. It is the contract that your subproject, assuming it's a class library is going to abide by. If an API appears to be missing it is because it doesn't have it as part of it's contract (maybe). I say maybe because it's not the easiest to find.
**** Start Revised ****
Here is a table of the versions of .Net that support the versions of .Net Standard.
In your case 4.6.1 doesn't even support 2.0. The last version of the Standard that 4.6.1 supported is 1.4.
I thought 4.6.1 supported .Net standard 2.0 after I wrote the above and upon further reading found a more up to date chart along with this post stating it is supported in 4.6.1. sigh
**** End Revised ****
This SO answer seems to indicate that 1.4 does have Resources in it but it was preview versions and things change. I don't see it in the APIs supported list but I could have missed it. The SO answer seems to indicate it was a tooling issue and could be worked around. That could be fixed by now....
Here's where you can look to see what each Standard supports for APIs.
HOWEVER, I don't think this is actually what you want.
I think what you really want is to simply change your sub project's target to 4.6.1 as is your main app since I highly suspect you have no need/desire to run cross platform.
Additionally, prior to .Net Standard 2.0, thousands of API's were not in the Standard. IMO, prior to 2.0, the Standard is a hard sell especially for users on the .Net Full Framework.
From what I can tell the Project Template to use is under "Windows Classic Desktop > Class Library (.Net Framework)"
EDIT
That said, you can add a .resx file to a .Net Standard project and use it in exactly the same way.

what .net version VS2005 use for C# project

I am porting a project built on VS2008 to VS2005 since the minor .NET version for us have to 2.0 instead of 3.5 and rest of our code is building on VS2005. So I modified the visual studio version from 2008 to 2005 at the .sln file
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005
So I am able to load the .sln into the VS2005. I have some building problem, mainly the "var" and after I modified those lines with real data type, the code compiles and runs.
However at the project assembly reference. I found out that my code is still reference Linq which is from .NET 3.5:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Xml.Linq.dll
When I open up the dialog to add new reference, I could see that the .NET version 2.0, 3.5 and even 4.0 (although the CLR runtime version is 2.0.50727 in most of cases. sometimes 1.x and sometimes 4.0, Linq's runtime version is 2.0.50727).
I thought that VS2005 only supports .NET 2.0 which seems not that case here. So I guess how can I make sure that my application would only require .NET 2.0 framework. Is it enough to make sure that I only reference .NET 2.0 and below reference?
As long as the target framework is .NET 2.0 and you don't reference any libraries that do target higher .NET framework versions, your app should run just fine on .NET 2.0.
That said, I believe Visual Studio 2008 supports multi-targeting, so you should be able to use VS2008 but still target .NET 2.0 as your output type. Additionally, VS2010 and VS2012RC also support .NET 2.0 only projects.
To answer the exact question in the title (for the benifit of those who find this page by its title) the .NET version used by default in Visual Studio 2005 is .NET v2.0.
You can still use VS2008. VS2008 fully supports 2.0-only projects (just change the project settings). When in 2.0 mode VS will disable any 3.0 and 3.5 assemblies as well as any C# language features that depend on 3.0 or 3.5 library classes (such as extension methods, but there is a workaround to get those working with 2.0).
I'll say that VS2010 also supports 2.0-only projects too.

Can I use all C# 4.0 features in a project that targets .Net 3.5?

Development Environment :
- VS2010
- .Net Framework 4.0, 3.5, 2.0
Staging and Production Environments:
- .Net Framework 3.5, 2.0
The project I'm working on is targeting .Net Framework 3.5. And today I used optional parameters feature, which is new to C#4, in this project and it worked fine. I think VS2010 is using C#4 compiler and is compiling the method with optional parameters to corresponding overloaded methods in IL.
I want to know if I can use all new C#4 features as well.
You cannot use is the dynamic feature. This relies on the C# runtime and DLR DLL's which are only available on the 4.0 version of the .Net framework. Versions of the DLR are available for 3.5 but I do not believe they are compatible with the one required by the C# compiler.
Additionally you cannot use NoPIA / Embedded Interop Types in a down targetted scenario. This feature requires CLR support that was added in 4.0.
What's great about down targeting in Visual Studio 2010 though is you don't have to be aware of every limitation. If your projects are set to down target 3.5 and you use an incompatible feature, Visual Studio will produce an error.
I bumped into this a couple of weeks ago actually. I used optional parameters even though the project targeted .net 3.5. You need to be very careful of this because if you install the application on a computer that only has .net 3.5 runtime installed then your program may not run. In my case, I used the optional params and the nightly build server only had 3.5 installed so the build failed.

Assembly Compatibility Question

I have a basic server control that I've written using .NET 3.5. If I give that dll to someone who is running a .NET 2.0 application, will it work?
Unless you are referencing any DLL's included in .NET 3.0 or 3.5 then yes it should work because the CLR versions are the same in .NET 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5. I believe there may have been minor changes to the 2.0 assemblies ("red bits") but I'll have to double check.
You can even just change the project properties in Visual Studio to target .NET 2.0 to be sure. If your app doesn't compile then it wouldn't have run on .NET 2.0 anyway.
Scott Hanselman has posted about .NET 2.0-3.5 differences.
The first thing you should do is try changing the Target Framework to 2.0 and see if your Server Control project still compiles (Right click on the project, choose Properties, then change the Target Framework to ".NET Framework 2.0" and choose "Yes" in the "Target Framework Change" dialog). If it still compiles you're off to a fairly good start. Now compile it, add it to a new web site and check to see if it works.
Most of the time you'll probably find that your control won't be using any 3.5 specific features, so once you've tried compiling it against 3.5 you'll be good to go!

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