Can new versions of CDF applications read CDF files written using older versions of the CDF library?
Our goal is to make CDF backward compatible in the sense that CDF files can always be read by new versions of the CDF library and tools. CDF 3.0 or later will read a file that was created with any of the previous CDF versions, but a file created from scratch with CDF 3.0 or later won’t be readable by 2.7, 2.6, 2.5, or 2.4.
Our goal is to make CDF backward compatible in the sense that CDF files can always be read by new versions of the CDF library and tools. We have succeeded in doing so up to CDF 2.7 (the latest CDF library) and will continue to follow the principle as much as possible. Old CDF libraries are generally NOT able to read CDF files written by newer versions of the CDF library. In some cases old CDF libraries can read CDFs from newer versions, such as CDF V2.3 reading CDF V2.4 files, but this is NOT recommended. Our policy is for CDF toolkit applications to read any CDF data set, but your own applications should use the latest CDF library.
