vs 2008 compiles 3.5 code regardless of target version

[Fregas]

http://ebsteblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/using-c-30-features-with-net-20/

Is it true that many of the 3.5 (or c# 3.0) features will work even if
you are targeting the .NET 2.0 framework? This makes it very easy to
mistakenly deploy code to your test or production environments that
work in development but do not work on the server. Is there a way to
cause these to become compiler errors during development so you can
catch them early on?

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Keep in mind, the 3.5 framework is not a new framework, it is extensions to
the 2.0 framework. So many people loose which features are available where.
The biggest thing in 3.5 from an ASP.Net perspective was ASP.Net Ajax in the
System.Web.Extension dll. Many hosts installed this to 2.0 anyways as it was
available as a separate download before the 3.5 framework release. The
largest feature lost is Linq since that is only in the 3.5 framework. Most
of the 3.0 features don't effect ASP.Net since they deal with Windows
Presentation Foundation, Windows Workflow, and Windows Communication
Foundation. Nothing directly added in ASP.Net. So, most of a 3.5 application
can still work in 2.0 since they use the same core framework pieces.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression

 

[Evan Camilleri]

Many features are simply 2.0 which are 'shortened' to be cooler/simpler.
They are then extened to actual 2.0 code prior to compilation

Evan Camilleri
http://www.holisticrd.com