I was curious if anyone else has run into this problem, and if so, how
you are reacting to it...

We have had Visual Studio 2002 installed on campus (several classrooms
and student labs) just under a year (started using it this past spring
semester). We use textbooks from McGraw-Hill and Course Technology
for our graduate and undergraduate VB.Net courses. Both books were
written for VB/VS 2002 and ship with 2002 student data files. Under
an agreement with Microsoft, both also ship with student versions of
VB. The version that the students received this semester is 2003.
One problem...they are not compatible! When a student opens a data
file from the book, or one given as part of a lab, on their home
system, they are told it is an older file and will be updated. When
they get back to campus and try to open their project, the installed
2002 version will not open it.

Of course, the "easy" answer is to upgrade the multiple installations
on campus. Not that easy a task now that the semester is underway.
We had no previous heads-up on this problem and only found out about
it when the students tried to open their projects on campus. The
publishers stated that they were told by Microsoft that there would be
no compatibility issues, and received the software late and did not
have the opportunity to verify.

Anyone else pulling out their hair on this one? Any easy workarounds?
What is your school doing?

Dave

"Dave" <nlls (AT) nospam (DOT) cox.com> wrote

You're describing the interoperability relationship correctly, not that it
helps you. I'm employed at a college where we have a similar situation,
solved (so far) by the following procedures:
We (in the Business & IT Division) decided to move to 2003 for Fall. The
other entities on campus (including the computer lab in our library) decided
to stay with 2002. Our students have who knows what from books or their own
purchases (we are supposed to be getting an Academic Alliance membership
"any day now", but...).
I approached the situation by writing a short description and statement for
all students in classes using .NET that essentially tells them that they can
go from 2002 to 2003, but not back and suggesting that they keep backup
copies of any 2002 projects that they plan to convert in our
classrooms/labs. I visited each section that I don't teach personally at the
beginning of the semester, so I *know* the word got out. I keep both 2002
and 2003 on my office and home computers, and instruct students to tell me
which version they are using so I don't convert projects and return them
unusable. I realize I can find out for myself, but making them responsible
for telling me keeps their minds on the situation.
So far, so good. I think the key is getting the word out.

--
Peter - [MVP - Academic]

hi Dave!

Here is my "quick and dirty" workaround:

Open the .proj-files (2002/2003) with an XML-editor, find the differences
and modify the 2003.proj-file.
Now it should be possible to open the project with VS 2002. If you have to
do this many times, use XML+XSL -> XML.
This should work until you use a new feature of VS 2003.

hth
tom, 8-)

"Dave" <nlls (AT) nospam (DOT) cox.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3f601c3b.7699921 (AT) news (DOT) east.cox.net...

Dave,
In addition to Peter's & Thomas's comments.

There is a utility at Code Project that will convert a VS.NET 2003 solution
back to VS.NET 2002.

http://www.codeproject.com/macro/vsconvert.asp

As long as the students stay away from VB.NET 2003 constructs (For Each item
As Integer & bit shift operators) there should be no real problems
converting the project back to VS.NET 2002 when working on it on campus.

The one quirk they will find is that VB.NET 2003 removes the parenthesis on
the constructor when creating new objects with the default constructor,
while VB.NET 2002 wants them there.

' VS.NET 2003 syntax
Dim x as New MainForm

' VS.NET 2002 syntax
Dim x as New MainForm()

Hope this helps
Jay

"Dave" <nlls (AT) nospam (DOT) cox.com> wrote

Peter,

Thanks for the reply!

Currently, we are doing somewhat what you described. The original
plan was to keep the classrooms and labs with 2002 and try to work
around it with the students (they all received 2003 with their books).
I explained the circumstances to them and since I have both full
versions (2002 and 2003) of Visual Studio installed on my own system
(thank goodness for the upgrade deal from Microsoft!) I can grade what
ever they turn in.

The only real problem right now is with commuters. They might get a
project 75% done at home but then are unable to work on it while on
campus. We've got a couple of "fixes" in the works (see my reply to
my original message).

Again, thanks for the assistance.

Dave


On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 06:49:17 -0500, "Peter van der Goes"
<p_vandergoes (AT) mars (DOT) cox.net> wrote:

Ok here's the latest update....

The IT dept found out that our license covers an upgrade to 2003 so we
can install it without additional cost (the good news). The plan was
to install it in the three classrooms in which VB is taught and one
student lab.

Then we hit a snag... One of the IT reps called me and informed me
that 2003 requires that sp3 for Win2K be installed. We do not have it
installed...the reason....when it was installed, it caused
incompatibilities with Novell! (loud sound of my head hitting the
wall). The IT folks are going to set up one lab as a test site and
see if they can work through it before "messing up" the classrooms.


And some success on a different front...I received a call from the
publisher's rep for our textbook (which is where the students got 2003
to start with). Seems they have worked out some kind of deal with
Microsoft, and they can supply me free copies of the full version (not
60 day version) of VB 2002 for all of the students. I don't know the
details of the deal they worked with Microsoft (at this point in my
life, I've learned not to ask too many questions when the news is
good) but they will be able to get the copies to me next week.

So...either we'll get the bugs between Microsoft and Novell worked
out, in which case the classrooms, one lab and the students will all
have 2003, or we will leave the classrooms and lab with 2002 and give
that version to the students. One way or the other, everyone will
finally be on the same sheet of music!

I love it when a plan comes together!


On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 07:09:32 GMT, nlls (AT) nospam (DOT) cox.com (Dave) wrote:

Bill,

Programming in Visual Basic .Net by Bradley and Millspaugh,
McGraw-Hill/Irwin pub.

Dave


On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 16:08:40 -0700, "William Burrows"
<burrows@u.washington.edu> wrote: