Backporting a VB.Net 2008 app to target .Net 1.1

Question

I have a small diagnostic VB.Net application ( 2 forms, 20 subs & functions) written using VB.Net 2008 that targets Framework 2.0 and higher, but now I realize I need to support Framework 1.1. I'm looking for the most efficient way to accomplish this given these constraints:

• I don't know which parts of the application are 2.0-specific.
• I could reconstruct the forms without too much trouble.
• I need to support SharpZipLib

My current idea is to find and install VB.Net 2003, copy over my code and iteratively re-create the tool. Are there better options?

Answer 1

Your app sounds small enough that I would create a fresh project/solution in a separate folder for the 1.1 framework, copy over the necessary files, use the "Add Existing Item" option, and then build. All the problems will bubble up to the surface that way.

A rather "ugly" approach, but it'll show you everything you need to fix up front.

Answer 2

Probably not. If you don't understand which bits are 2.0-specific, you're probably going to have to go the trial-and-error route. However, you can probably save yourself quite a bit of work if you go looking for generics beforehand. In my experience, those are the most numerous 1.1-incompatible bits that tend to make it into my code.

Answer 3

If you can gets your hands on VS 2010, you can (finally) target multiple frameworks. So within one project, you should be able to compile your 2.0 project to 1.1 and see what breaks.