It is a three-tier design consisting of a Visual Basic client application running on Windows 95, a Windows NT middle tier developed in Visual C++ and Visual Basic, and an Oracle database for the back end. The project I’m currently involved in has been ongoing for four years. Here’s a cautionary tale that illustrates the effect this trend can have on development projects. And what is cost-effective to these suppliers may not be cost-effective to the developers of the deliverable application. As more and more features were added to operating systems and the use of third-party libraries, components, and modules became widespread, these choices moved from the developers of the application to the suppliers of the operating system and other modules.
In the early days of software development, a computer program was a largely independent module, and decisions regarding the costs and benefits of maintaining compatibility between versions were entirely in the hands of the developers.
#FINAL DRAFT 10 BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE UPDATE#
I define backward compatibility as the degree to which a software update does not negatively affect the user or client. Because of this, you must be even more vigilant over your entire development environment. However, control of what is and what isn’t compatible seems to be shifting from the developers to the vendors. When maintaining software systems, especially for a large client, one of the major concerns is backward compatibility between releases or updates.