forward compatibility

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forward compatibility

[¦fȯr·wərd kəm‚pad·ə′bil·əd·ē]

(computer science)

forward compatibility

(jargon)

The ability to accept input from later versions of itself.

Forward compatibility is harder to achieve than backward compatibility, since, in the backward case, the input format is know whereas a forward compatible system needs to cope gracefully with unknown future features. An example of future compatibility is the stipulation that a web browser should ignore HTML tags it does not recognise.

See also extensible.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

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