How to Mix different compiler versions programs in visualstudio:?

Question

HI

our total project had Built on vs2003.earlier they have used SQLDMO in teheir project.Now

we have palnned to use SQLSMO instead which must have .NETFRAMEWORK 2.0.But as of my

knowledge vs2003 runs under .netframework1.1.

Now my question is how to mix these two. my thinking is in my machine i have alresdy

.NETFRAMEWORK 2.0 installed so Compiled that SMO prject(i hav written managed code) using 2.0 framework and after that

can i mix this one to VS2003 is it possible??? (how to compile using .NET framework when i try msbuild.exe it shows project needts tobe open and gets converted to latest version error showing how to rectify this one)

(or)

i need to migrate to VS2005 (last option only)

Help me plzzzzzzzzzzzz

Answer 1

My advice is not to try, standardize on the later version of Visual Studio, you can migrate the the solutions / project files easily.

Answer 2

If you need to work with the .NET framework 2.0 your choices are either Visual Studio 2005 or VS2008. My preference would be VS2008 as you can target different .NET environments from it instead of the earlier Visual Studios that were tied to a single version of the framework.

If you've got a bunch of other projects that you depend on you'll either have to convert them as well or stay on .NET 1.1 and forget about SQLSMO. I don't think you can have both. If on the other hand there are several other projects that depend on you producing 1.1-compliant asssemblies then you're pretty much stuck with VS2003 and can forget about SQLSMO (again).

Answer 3

First thing to do--fire up project in VS2008 (or 2005 if you can't get '8) and see how it converts--many things will actually convert just fine, there were not that many breaking changes. This will establish the level of pain in going forward. Compare that against features in newer versions of the framework and you should have a reasonably easy decision to make.

Also keep in mind that, if some components are pretty much dead letter, .NET 2.0 can definitely talk to and reference 1.1 assemblies in most cases, so if some parts can't convert but are not changing, you can just statically reference them.