LoadVersion and IArcGISVersion in general

[Anonymous User]

Original User: hpengwyn

Thinking about forward compatability, is the grand vision that versions of ArcGIS from now on will support side by side installation and therefore our software should enumerate the versions and ask the users which one they want and then load that version with LoadVersion?

What is the meaning of the 'active version' - will future versions of the software have some tool that allows the user to choose an active version?

What does it mean if the 'active version' is ArcEngine?

Fundamentally some example code showing how we are supposed to do things so that the software will work when version 10.5 (or whatever) comes out would be handy.

John

[Anonymous User]

Original User: skutz

John,

  You raise a good question regarding the benefits of an example to demonstrate the manner in which ESRI intends for developers to use the process of enumerating versions and eventually call ->LoadVersion().

  On the topic of side-by-side installations, the long series of postings at the URL below indicate that ESRI has decided to not offer side-by-side deployments.

Scott

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/98-Side-by-side-deployments

Subject: Beta 10: Side by side deployments

Some entries from that URL addressing your question are included below.

10-23-2009 11:07 AM  damian 

9.3.1 and 9.4
All - I hope this text below helps clarify this issue.
We understand many of you (and us) really wanted to be able to have side-by-side but we are not going to be able to offer that in 9.4.

-Damian
dspangrud@esri.com
ArcGIS Product Manager

The best way for users to deploy multiple versions of ArcGIS is to use virtualization software. This approach allows users to continue to use multiple workflows and allows easy application development and deployment.

Initially we had undertaken development for ArcGIS 9.4 to support multiple versions of ArcGIS (9.3.1 and 9.4) being able to run on the same machine at the same time. Unfortunately what we found was the needs of such a deployment caused the install and the developer experience to be unnecessarily complicated and introduced a number of areas of incompatibility.

We recommend that users who want to install 2 versions of ArcGIS use a virtualization tool (such as VM Workstation) and install the new instance of ArcGIS on that virtual machine. This solution is the best approach now with ArcGIS (9.2,9.3�?�) as well as into the future (9.4 and beyond).

At ArcGIS 9.4, if users install ArcGIS 9.4 on a machine that current has and previous version of ArcGIS they will be prompted to uninstall that version prior to installing ArcGIS 9.4. We realize this is a change to what was previously announced functionality in ArcGIS 9.4, but the virtualization technology solves this issue in a much more straightforward and user acceptable manner.

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11-11-2009 03:11 PM 

As for 'futures'/'possibilities' running 931 and 94 definitely is not happening for 9.4... sorry..

Post -9.4 - It's not likely, especially given that Win7 ships with VM inside it the trend is more and more towards VM use.

Thanks,
-Damian
dspangrud@esri.com
ArcGIS Product Manager
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