[FLEX-19423] binary incompatibility between versions and old version availability

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Not A Problem
• Affects Version/s: Adobe Flex SDK 3.2 (Release)
• Component/s: Marshall Plan (Versioning)
• Environment: Affected OS(s): All OS Platforms; Browser: Firefox 3.x; Language Found: English
• Assignee: Adobe JIRA
• Reporter: Adobe JIRA
• Created: 21/May/09 16:05
• Updated: 24/May/09 13:34
• Resolved: 21/May/09 16:26

Description

Steps to reproduce:
0: actual new issue is described below - the technical issue is a duplicate of bug 14464
1. Create a SWF with sdk 3.1 or 3.0
2. Try using that swf as an RSL in a project built with 3.2 (and I imagine 3.3)

Actual Results:
some runtime error e.g.
VerifyError: Error #1053: Illegal override of FocusManager in mx.managers.FocusManager.

at global$init()
at mx.core::Application/initManagers()[E:\dev\3.1.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\Application.as:1134]
at mx.core::Application/initialize()[E:\dev\3.1.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\Application.as:817]
at main/initialize()[C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel Mekonnen\Desktop\Oracle\graph-hello-world\src\main.mxml:0]
at mx.managers::SystemManager/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::childAdded()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:2009]
at mx.managers::SystemManager/initializeTopLevelWindow()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:3234]
at mx.managers::SystemManager/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::docFrameHandler()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:3064]
at mx.managers::SystemManager/docFrameListener()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:2916]

Expected Results:
no runtime error

Workaround (if any):
upgrade all development infrastructure to latest SDK and recompile

Further notes:
This issue is explored in bug 14464
http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-14464

The problem I wish to highlight is not the technical problem but a business problem this technical creates.
The business problem is that my product (TopBraid Ensemble from TopQuadrant) includes SWFs, and the ability for our users to write additional flex code to work with the SWFs we ship. Given the binary incompatibility issue, we need our users to use the same Flex SDK as we did when we built whichever version of our product they are using.
Currently we may be prohibited from reshipping the flex SDK by the license terms, and as far as I can tell adobe do not make old versions of the SDK available either.