Plugins require a MaxVersion property.  SC checks this and doesn't allow a plugin to load if it is not high enough.

There are already quite a few messages where people have asked why their favourite plugin has stopped working after upgrading from 7.0 to 7.0.1, and they have been told to edit the xml file to set MaxVersion=*.  In future versions, the plugin may not be compatible but will still try to run and cause errors.

I think it's reasonable to allow plugins to run when the MaxVersion is lower than SC version, but to display warnings.

It could still check MaxVersion, but log a warning and allow the plugin to continue.  It would be good for these possible incompatible plugins to be shown as warnings on the plugin settings page (or listed on the status page, etc).

Maybe plugins that have a MaxVersion that is a major revision behind should be restricted, but allow minor revisions to proceed with warnings.

MinVersion is more important - the plugin definitely should not load if the SC version isn't high enough.

MaxVersion parsing perhaps should not allow wildcards.

I suggest the following:

1. Provide an advanced setting with options being: Obey MaxVersion check, allow minor revision changes, allow major version changes.

2. Perhaps automatically allow MaxVersion to be exceeded if a plugin is running in a beta release version of SC.

3. Report warning or error in the log as appropriate when a plugin may be incompatible due to max version check setting.

4. Report plugin warning state in WebUI plugin settings/status page.