# Dropping .NET 2.0 Support for IronRuby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451>\
**Category:** IronRuby\
**Created:** [April 6, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451 "2011-04-06T23:30:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dubstep)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451/1 "2011-04-06T23:30:17Z")

</div>

Right now, the plan is for IronPython to drop support for .NET 2.0 and  
be .NET 4 only for the 3.0 release (which is probably still a year or  
more away). Are there any similar plans for IronRuby? IP can drop 2.0  
support without impacting IR at all (I think), but if there plans to  
drop it from IR as well we can trim up the repository somewhat (in  
particular, the DLR inner ring could be removed and live in the Mono  
tree, or something like that).

- Jeff

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jhagemeier)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451/2 "2011-04-07T00:01:44Z")

</div>

I’d be fine with dropping support for _Desktop_ v2.0. We need to support  
Silverlight 3 builds though so that we continue running on Windows Phone  
7. This essentially means we can’t get rid of the inner ring just yet.  
Do you consider supporting IronPython on Windows Phone too? The only  
work that’s needed there is to interpret call-sites instead of compiling  
them. Some of them already do so but there are others that don’t. Plus  
you’d need a bit refactoring to avoid referring Ref.Emit types in common  
code paths.

Overall I don’t think dropping v2.0 build buys us that much if we need  
Silverlight 3 build anyways. Do you experience problems or excessive  
amount of work supporting v2.0 builds?

Tomas

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jhagemeier)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451/3 "2011-04-07T00:42:23Z")

</div>

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 4:00 PM, Tomas M.  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I’d be fine with dropping support for _Desktop_ v2.0. We need to support  
> Silverlight 3 builds though so that we continue running on Windows Phone 7. This  
> essentially means we can’t get rid of the inner ring just yet. Do you consider  
> supporting IronPython on Windows Phone too? The only work that’s needed there is  
> to interpret call-sites instead of compiling them. Some of them already do so but  
> there are others that don’t. Plus you’d need a bit refactoring to avoid referring  
> Ref.Emit types in common code paths.

It’s a pretty common request, but no one has stepped up to do it yet,  
and it doesn’t interest me personally. I don’t want to rule it out,  
though. I think we’d similar work to run on MonoTouch as well.  
However, we could restrict that to the 2.7 line until WP gets a proper  
Silverlight 4/CoreCLR runtime.

> Overall I don’t think dropping v2.0 build buys us that much if we need  
> Silverlight 3 build anyways. Do you experience problems or excessive amount of  
> work supporting v2.0 builds?

We’re still going to support them for 2.7, and 2.7 will be around for  
a long time. For 3.0 I doubt I’ll do anything to actively break 2.0  
support, but testing against it won’t be done on a regular basis, and  
if it breaks, and no one steps up to fix it, it’ll stay probably stay  
broken.

- Jeff

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jhagemeier)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451/4 "2011-04-07T00:42:24Z")

</div>

I think having the V2 build there but not actively tested works fine.  
Anybody who wants to use the latest IPy 3.0 build on V2 could submit a  
patch that fixes v2 specific issues if there are any.  
What about “officially” declaring we don’t support V2 but keep the  
infrastructure in place and not intentionally remove v2 specific code.  
Sounds good?

Tomas

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@jhagemeier](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jhagemeier)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dropping-net-2-0-support-for-ironruby/205451/5 "2011-04-07T00:59:37Z")

</div>

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Tomas M.  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I think having the V2 build there but not actively tested works fine. Anybody  
> who wants to use the latest IPy 3.0 build on V2 could submit a patch that fixes v2  
> specific issues if there are any.  
> What about “officially” declaring we don’t support V2 but keep the  
> infrastructure in place and not intentionally remove v2 specific code. Sounds  
> good?

Sounds good to me. I hate to invoke the “It’s OSS; if you want it, you  
do it” rule, but this seems like an appropriate place to do so.

- Jeff
