Version compatibility

[Radon]

Hello. I need to have a complex add-in built for Word. My VBA programmer has given me a reasonable quote, but says he will only assure compatibility with 1 Word version (97 or 2000...).

I understand that there is no "one size fits all" but is it reasonable to ask him to make it compatible with at least all 97 and newer version?

Thanks.

[TonyJollans]

It does depend on your situation (and your relationship with your programmer) but, personally, I would tell him that's not good enough. However, as a general rule there is a fair amount of backward compatibility and if it works in 97 or 2000 it will probably work in later versions (but will require testing).

If you need support for Word 97 make sure you stress that because there were quite a few changes in both Word and VBA between those versions. If you don't need support for 97 then it would only be fair to tell your programmer because it will make his life easier.

[Radon]

Actually, it is the first time I work with him. I do need to cover as many versions as possible since I will be distributing the add-in for free to my customers and there will be all kinds of them.

Will it take a lot more programming time, or just a lot more knowledge to get it right?

Tx.

[TonyJollans]

Bit of both really, but mostly extra testing time. If you don't know the environments it's going into there are all sorts of things which can potentially cause problems - different versions of Windows perhaps, other AddIns conflicting with it, etc. If I were doing it for you I think I'd like some sort of support contract rather than giving an up-front guarantee, because there is no way there won't be a problem somewhere in some environment. That way you, as customer, would get some peace of mind and I, as developer, would have an incentive to do a good job otherwise I'd be spending a lot of time sorting it out later. It does, depend on exactly what it does of course but, as you say it's complex, I would imagine there are areas where there might be problems - older systems with less facilities, perhaps, or security issues in newer systems.

[Killian]

Hi there,

I have to say I understand where your developer is coming from... I'm just going through the revision specs for a template project that needs to be 97 compatible and since we're on version 3 I know what I've got to look forward to :nervous:

I seem to remember a few situations from the previous versions where there were differences between 97 and 2000+ that meant making some compromises on functionality that the client had to accept since you always have to work to the lowest common denominator.
There is the option of using the conditional compliation directive (testing for VBA6 which is 2000+) to choose which code to run or to exclude functionality that doesn't exist in 97 - this does of course mean writing double the code for those functions and can complicate the program design somewhat.

Another aspect many commercial developers have to consider is the fact that Office 97 is no longer supported by MS. Whether this has any real-world consequenses is debatable.

As with any development project, it is quite critical to ensure testing in done on all planned deployment platforms.

What ever choices are made in how to address these challenges, if you want to include 97 compatablilty on a complex VBA project, all the little considerations add up to extra development and testing time.

All this does, of course, depend on exactly what's being done. You might be lucky and the impact might be minimal (but I doubt it). If there is a genuine requirement for use under 97 then (from a developers point of view) so be it - add the extra time/cost and get on with it (although I have know such requests to be turned away).

But there's no escaping the pace of change and it's worth asking yourself some questions before you go on:
When was the last time you bought software that didn't have "Windows XP" as the minimum spec?
What proportion of your potential client base is really running Office 97?
How long do you want to cater for a redundant platform?
Do you really want to pay someone to write code that's effectively obsolete?

Just my 2 cents - although now I think about it, if I have to put up with it, why shouldn't everyone else?!

[Radon]

Tony and Killian,

Thanks a lot for your valuable input. Now that I have a better understanding of the implications, I negotiated a fairer deal with my developer.


We will work develop for 97, check for compatibility and if it doesn't work on latter versions then we will do the double code version as Killian recommended.

Cheers