Project Roundtripping in Visual Studio 11
Most people who commented on my recent blog, .NET 4 and .NET 4.5 Won't Coexist were not thrilled with Microsoft's decision to do an in-place update of the .NET Framework in the upcoming Visual Studio 11/.NET Framework 4.5. Microsoft is working on backward compatibility for .NET 4.5, of course, and trying to work out the kinks, but sometimes it’s the little changes that turn into major development headaches.
One area where backward compatibility in the latest tooling is applauded by developers is related to conversion of Visual Studio projects. For the first time, the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview supports backward compatibility of project files, also known as project roundtripping, according to a recent blog posting by Microsoft Senior Developer Evangelist Zain Naboulsi.
Developers can open a Visual Studio 2010 SP1 project in the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview and instead of converting the project file--a requirement of earlier versions of the IDE--they can continue to work on the same project in Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1. This roundtripping feature supports Visual Studio 2010 with Service Pack 1 only; it does not work for projects created in earlier versions of the IDE.
A few respondents who commented on the MSDN blog have noted instances in which the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview still prompted them to convert project files (TF databases, for example). Naboulsi also points out:
When you use any feature specific to the new version of Visual Studio, like changing the Framework to the latest version, then the project cannot be opened in the prior version.
Are you jazzed about the project backward compatibility in the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview? Express your thoughts below or drop me a note about cool features or tips that you've discovered in the next-gen tooling.
Posted by Kathleen Richards on 11/15/2011 at 2:05 PM