  Downward compatibility of applications? 
 The Question is:
 
Will a compiled v7.1 FORTRAN .EXE run on v6.2
 
 The Answer is :
 
  Downward (or backward) compatibility of images is not officially
  supported, and is known to not operate in various cases.
 
  The official support for application image compatibility is upward
  only -- you must compile and link on the oldest version that will be
  supported.  User-mode applications and code constructs -- barring any
  latent errors, of course -- are expected to operate successfully on
  later OpenVMS versions.
 
  There are various unsupported approaches that have been attempted
  over the years including redirection of the LINK at older RTL images,
  but these approaches all have a similar limitation: without testing
  on the target version, it is difficult to predict if the images will
  work in the target (older) environment.  And once a target testing
  environment is available, you might as well build there, too...
 
  Please see topics (3761), (5192), and (6829).
 
  Related topics include (173), (866), (1052), (1171), (1904), (2738),
  (2932), (4336), and (6049).
 
 
 Answer written or last revised on  11-OCT-2001 
