| abstract
| - A device or technology is said to be backward compatible if it allows input generated by older devices.
- In the context of telecommunications and computing a device or technology is said to be backwards or downwards compatible if it can work with input generated by an older device. If products designed for the new standard can receive, read, view or play older standards or formats, then the product is said to be backwards-compatible; examples of such a standard include data formats and communication protocols. Jocularly referred to as "hysterical raisins" i.e., a homophone like phrase for "historical reasons". The reverse is forward compatibility, which implies that old devices allow (or are expected to allow) data formats generated by new (or future) devices, perhaps without supporting all new features. A standard supports forward compatibility if older product versions can receive, read, view or play the new standard. For example, the introduction of FM stereo transmission allowed backward compatibility since new FM radio receivers could receive monophonic signals generated by old transmitters. It also allowed forward compatibility, since old monophonic FM radio receivers still could receive a signal from a new transmitter. In programming languages, backwards compatibility refers to the ability of a compiler for version N of the language to accept programs or data that worked under version N - 1. (By this definition, if version N - 1 and other previous versions were also backward compatible, which is often the case, then by the principle of recursion, version N will also accept input that worked under any prior version after the latest one that was not non–backward compatible. However, in practice, features are often deprecated and support is dropped in a later release - yet still thought of as backwards compatible.) In other contexts, a product or a technology is said to be backward compatible when it is able to fully take the place of an older product, by inter-operating with products that were designed for the older product.
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