Updating CodeIgniter 1.7.3 to CodeIgniter 3.1.7

While I respect your opinion, You are WAY OFF on a few things and clearly misinterpreted and/or misread what I was asking.

First, I don't know how this became me blaming anyone, PERIOD. That was not AT ALL what I was doing.

I wasn't necessarily saying that you're personally blaming anyone, but the following does give that impression:

So, without access to the next version from 1.7.3 to version say 2.0.0's "system"/(kernel) dir how is anyone supposed to even know if their changes were done correctly? Not only that-As I mentioned above, its your guide's #1 step to upgrading in the 3.1.7 User's Guide!

I mean, you might be blaming us for having a sub-par/conflcting user guide, or you might not. But it certainly sounds rather aggressive, and you've been randomly emphasising words with CAPS from your very first post, which (in case you're not aware) is commonly used to represent SCREAMING, so ...

I was simply asking where were the system folder file versions your user guide mentions using to patch this old version with-STARTING in VERSION 2.0.0?

See, again with the "your user guide". When you say "your", that refers to a particular person or group, which makes it personal.

Secondly, if no one on here had anything to do with CI til version 2.0.3 then I was asking could ANYONE point me where I could try to locate them? How you misconstrued that as "blaming anyone" I'll never know.  Whether or not it was based on PHP 4 notwithstanding.

I'm not stupid, I know what you were asking. What I was explaining with that is that because you are working with something based on PHP 4, it is unreasonable to even try to look for those old packages. You'd be wasting your time with that.

Third, I have no idea where you got the idea I WAS asking for versions PRIOR to 1.7? I HAD NOT mentioned anything about needing ANY file prior to 1.7 just version 2.0.0. Where that came from I'll never know either.

Really? You'll even take literally that one silly, obvious exaggeration that I made at the end? It was supposed to underline the ridiculousness of your situation.

Quite ironic for you to do that, given how rattled you are by the possibility of someone misinterpreting you.

Fourth, As far as this being a failure to update the software on my end: I don't think anyone who was or is running version 1.7 on any project would ever have thought that a version CI would ever NOT BE backwards compatible. As version 2.0 appears to be the VERY FIRST time that has ever happened since CI's and PHPs original inception.
However, I do take full responsibility for not paying closer attention to the updates to notice when we were told backwards compatibility would end. I assure you, had I of known backwards compatibility was ending I would have updated every time a official new release was issued.
So, yes I was negligent and ignorant in thinking ALL CI releases would be backwards compatible and just require some copy and pasting of files and then done. I am all too aware of that now. So yes that is my oversight.

A new major version (as in 2.x as opposed to 1.x) is not fully backwards-compatible ... what a shocker. Honestly, you might be the only person who didn't see that one coming. The entire point of having a major.minor.patch version scheme is to know when to expect breaking changes.

I have to say though, slacking upgrades because you think they'd all be BC is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a long time. 99% of people do it for the opposite reason - they're scared of BC breaks.

The reason why you should do regular updates is to receive bug fixes and, more importantly, security patches. If you don't do a single update (of either CI, PHP or other dependencies) in years, your application is guaranteed to have vulnerabilities.

Good luck.