Don't shoot the messanger John. I'm just passing along what I know about the current situation. Also note that with the 4.0 FW, the CLR changed the way is registers itself and where you have to look in the registry to determine the current version, which is why the preexisting detection logic would now fail. Assemblies are not FW agnostic, so they won't "just load" into whatever CLR you tell them to. They might, but the CLR has basically said they won't guarantee it. That doesn't mean they won't try to maintain compat whenever possible, but there is a disconnect between the 2.0 runtime and the 4.0 runtime with regards to how much compat they are guranteeing. -- Bryan
________________________________________ From: John Vottero [jvott...@mvpsi.com] Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 11:49 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] WiXNetFxExtension conditions > > There is no guarantee that your product would work just fine with CLR > 4.0 just because it works with CLR 2.0 (Framework 3.5). The WiX version test is a guarantee that it WON'T work because it will refuse to install. We work very hard to make sure that our software is "upwardly compatible" and the .NET Framework people do the same. All that hard work is negated if the installer has a pedantic version test. The test for a version of the Framework must (optionally) be "Vx.x or any version that claims to support Vx.x". We write "enterprise grade" software. Enterprises don't want to upgrade without a good reason. Ten years from now, when a customer calls us up to ask if they can install a ten year old release on Windows 2020, I want to say yes. I don't want to explain that it won't work because the installer will refuse to install. > > For CLR 4.0 the CLR has moved into a SxS model whereby 4.0 can be > loaded in-proc SxS 2.0 runtime, and the 5.0 runtime will be loaded into > process alongside the 4.0 runtime, etc. Therefore, they are moving away > from a model where CLR 4.0 assumes it can run CLR 2.0 runtime solutions > with compatibility. There is extra work you will have to do with > manifests to allow that scenario to work, and you will have to update > that manifest for each new FW released. Your setup would also have to > change to take this into account. The SxS model only works for applications. Libraries are still loaded into whatever version is loading them. I think you can also create a manifest that says "run on whatever is installed" (I haven't tried that). > > So actually it's a good thing that the 3.5 detection logic doesn't > assume 4.0 matches because if it did you may find your solution > installed onto a platform that is not back compat with your solution. No, it's actually a bad thing because it forces my software to break for no reason. Give me a chance to install so I can see if it works. John Vottero ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOLARIS 10 is the OS for Data Centers - provides features such as DTrace, Predictive Self Healing and Award Winning ZFS. Get Solaris 10 NOW http://p.sf.net/sfu/solaris-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOLARIS 10 is the OS for Data Centers - provides features such as DTrace, Predictive Self Healing and Award Winning ZFS. Get Solaris 10 NOW http://p.sf.net/sfu/solaris-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
