Ok.  Now we have a problem.  Some folks want to use VS 2008 RTM while continuing to target an existing .Net 2.0 solution.  The project files don’t give us a problem, but the solution file does.  Here is the first line in a VS 2005 solution file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00

When this file is opened in VS 2008, the nice upgrade wizard comes up.  This wizard will do crazy things to our solution file, like changing the first line to:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00

Joking aside, this is the ONLY difference in running a .Net 2.0 solution in VS 2008.  There is absolutely no change to the project files necessary.

Given that, it ought to be possible to have some members of the team using VS 2005 and some using VS 2008.  Why not?  One way to accomplish this is to have two solution files in the source code trunk.  The files will be identical except the version number.

Below, I’ve provided two solution files for my NHibernate demo trunk.  You can use TortoiseSVN to checkout this trunk to try it out if you wish.

Note that you will have to pick one of these solution files for your automated build.  I’d recommend typing your automated Nant build to the VS 2005 solution and keeping that as the gold standard because, after all, your continuous integration server should only have .Net 2.0 installed if that’s what you are targeting.  The members of the team using VS 2008 will have to ensure the VS 2005 solution gets any solution modifications that are necessary.  Both the local and CI build should use the VS 2005 solution file.  With that policy, team synchronization won’t suffer.