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compatibility of ros melodic with ros kinetic

asked 2020-08-20 07:52:29 -0600

Yogesh Dusane gravatar image

Hi,

I have robot running with ROS arm Kinetic version, and i have created QT based GUI which is running from ROS Melodic version using action lib messaging.

is both version have compatibility for communication purpose ? or do I need to have same ROS version on robot and application running machine ?

is ROS melodic have backward compatibility to ROS Kinetic ?

Thanks & Regards Yogesh Dusane

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answered 2020-08-20 13:07:01 -0600

updated 2020-08-20 13:07:16 -0600

0% supported compatability. You may find that it works OK as long as nothing major changed in the libraries you're using, but no one is going to offer support for it and its not recommended. You should run the same ROS version.

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This seems a bit too pessimistic.

Many Q&As here on this site about the same topic essentially say: as long as the messages you intent to exchange between nodes haven't changed, things will most likely work.

And "not changed" means both syntax (so names and types of fields) as well as semantics (ie: meaning of fields). The latter will be more difficult to diagnose though.

For many messages involved in tele-operation type tasks (ie: geometry_msgs, tf, std_msgs and control_msgs) this is the case. For messages created by the OP him/herself, that would of course always under his/her control.

Is mixing ROS versions "officially supported" (whatever that means): no, it isn't. And if you post questions here about things not working with such a setup, you'll most likely be told "first try with everything running the same ROS version".

Will it work: provided you take the ...(more)

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2020-08-20 13:16:40 -0600 )edit

That is all true. I frame it this way because its really not recommended and could have a bunch of potential problems. Also future readers might read an answer approving of that as instruction to do so (and potentially with a different situation what won't work), which I'd like to avoid.

stevemacenski gravatar image stevemacenski  ( 2020-08-20 13:38:22 -0600 )edit
2

I agree with you.

The phrasing of your answer however made it sound like it's not possible at all.

"supported" could be understood to mean: technically not possible with the current implementation.

I realise you mean to say "there is no support" as in: when asking questions, you will not receive any support, as it's likely going to be the cause of whatever problem you are running into.

Those are two different things, and I felt the extra nuance could help here.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2020-08-20 13:43:56 -0600 )edit

Thank you both of you to clarify on this, which make me to take decision move on to the same version of ROS.

Yogesh Dusane gravatar image Yogesh Dusane  ( 2020-08-20 22:59:45 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2020-08-20 07:52:29 -0600

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Last updated: Aug 20 '20