common client for 0.7.2 & 0.8 clusters?

[David McWhorter]

Hi all, we have an application that needs to support producing and 
consuming data to/from kafka 0.7.2 and 0.8 clusters in different 
environments.   I understand that the 0.8 release was a substantial 
change and that a cluster itself cannot be upgraded from 0.7 to 0.8 as 
normal and you must follow the instructions noted on this page 
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Migrating+from+0.7+to+0.8. 
However, I was wondering if it is possible to use one of the client 
versions (0.7.2. or 0.8) and have it interact successfully 
(produce/consume) data with both a 0.7 and 0.8 cluster.  That is, can I 
use a 0.8 client and have it successfully negotiate to use the 0.7.2 
protocol with a 0.7.2 cluster, or alternately is it possible to use a 
0.7.2. client with a 0.8 cluster?  I've searched for a while for a 
definitive answer to this question, but please feel free to point me to 
relevant documentation I may have missed.

Thanks,
David
--
*David McWhorter*
Commonwealth Computer Research, Inc.
1422 Sachem Place, Unit #1
Charlottesville, VA 22901
mcwhor...@ccri.com | 434.284.9404