Console application built with .NET 4.80 and Aspose.PDF nuget package
When referencing Aspose.PDF 24.3.0, bin folder contains just Aspose.PDF.dll
When referencing Aspose.PDF 24.4.0+, build falls back to .NET Standard, and bin folder contains 20 other DLLs (Microsoft.DotNet.PlatformAbstractions.dll , System.Memory.dll etc)
This is because previously nuget dependencies contained
[dependencies]
[group targetFramework=“.NETFramework4.0” ]
[group targetFramework=“.NETFramework4.8.1”]
@ashaspose
The development team added support for .Net 8 to the Nuget package (starting from version 24.5). Because package size is limited, the version for .Net Framework 4 has been excluded from the Nuget package. In addition, it was decided to abandon it so as not to complicate product support. During the transition period, you can download a separate *.dll zip for .NET 4 from the website (Download .NET Component DLL to Process PDF | Aspose.PDF API). 123.png (48.1 KB)
While abandoning 4.0 target is understandable, would it be possible to consider maintaining either 4.62-4.8 target (as a separate download) or reducing the required version in the nuget from 4.8.1 to 4.8 (if Aspose.PDF doesn’t necessarily require 4.8.1)?
The issue is that .NET 4.8.1 does not exist for older Windows 10 builds and Server 2019 (which is still supported).
@ashaspose
At the moment, the development team has a clear intention to remove the variant for .Net Framework 4,
but what minimum .Net Framework to leave is not yet completely certain.
I have passed on your comment (wish) to them and they will take it into account when making a decision.
Allow me to throw my opinion in here. Unless there is something in 4.8.1 that Aspose.Pdf is relying on it would be much better to go to 4.8 as the target framework. If there is something in 4.8.1 that Aspose.Pdf is relying on I would love to know what it is.
4.8 can be run on anything from Windows Server 2012 and later and Windows 7 and later. I’ve got a few customer sites still running Server 2016 so I’m blocked from updating Aspose.Pdf to anything after 24.3
@mike.doerfler
I passed the arguments from this topic to the development team. However, it was decided to leave only 4.8.1. The library with 4.0 support can be downloaded from the page,
I’d really like to know what part of Net Framework 4.8.1 is required for Aspose.PDF that is not in 4.8. The MS decision (of which you have no control) to not support 2016 & 2019 is the really bad decision and most surprising considering how good they are with compatibility.
@mike.doerfler
As I thought, the issue is in the size of the nuget package and the need for additional release procedures when making the release.
However, upon request, the development team provided more complete information.
"We have never published version 4.8, I just checked again, we initially added 4.8.1, before that there were 4.0 and 4.0 client profile, when adding 4.8.1 we removed 4.0 client profile, and later, when adding NET8, we removed 4.0.
The issue here is both the size of the nuget package, and the fact that 4.0 is already an outdated version, Microsoft has also stopped supporting it.
The user most likely installed version 4.0 on the 4.8 project, since we removed it from the main nuget package starting with 24.4"
I completely understand getting rid of the 4.0 and 4.0 client profile. With Windows 10 being the last supported workstation OS you are pretty much guaranteed to have at least .NET Framework 4.7.2 as the minimum version.
If you publish a .net 4.8 as part of the NuGet you don’t need to publish .net 4.8.1. What I see a lot of other companies do (and what we do) is publish both a net 4.7.2 and a net 8.0. That covers all of our applications and completely covers all supported versions of Windows - desktop and server.
Targeting .net 4.8.1 is very limiting because it only is available on Server 2022 - MS really should have called it 4.9 if they were not going to support it on 2016/2019. We have customers of our software that are running Server 2016 and 2019 mostly. Server 2022 was too new when 2012 went EOL so many went with Server 2019 for their upgrades. They won’t upgrade a working server until it hits EOL.
That means we can’t upgrade Aspose.Pdf because our customers are running servers that don’t support .net 4.8.1. I’m all for moving forward and would love to be .net 8.0 only, but I still have some large applications (not Aspose) I’m waiting on before I can drop net 4. 7.2
I understand that you can’t promise anything - appreciate you passing the information along. I really don’t understand the decision unless there really is something in 4.8.1 that is required for Aspose.Pdf to run.