Illustrator importing rules list?

I use Adobe Illustrator a lot, but I've noticed this more and more often....

Getting anything created in Illustrator to import/open in other programs is an incredibly haphazard situation where I sometimes have to keep re-saving the .AI or .EPS in sequencially older formats to get it to open.

Is there any Illustrator website that lists what the various graphics applications (like Corel Draw) will accept as an .AI or .EPS file? I'm wanting to know exactly what I can and can't import from Illustrator without the original graphic not looking like its supposed to.

As a general rule, I usually save as Illustrator files in version 5.5 or 6, but all the new cool goodies in Illustrator 10 don't even get recognized many times by these older formats. The entire Illustrator incompatibility issue is just getting incredibly compounded for me lately... *sigh*

I feel your pain.
Really.

I have problem with illustrator all the time, for the reasons you just named. I use Corel as a "middle man" daily. The problem is, you have to keep corel updated along with FreeHand and illustrator.
Illustrator is pretty much the leader of the pack and corel and freehand will both "export" and "import" .ai files as well as .eps files created in illustrator. The versions just have to be close.

With version 9 and 10 illustrator like you said, the new features won't get saved when saving as a lower version. Corel 10 will however import and properly display the files. As will freehand.

It basicly, for me, boils down to .... I have to ask each and every person I have to share files with what version of this and that they have. Then give them a file type they can work with, even if it means rasterizing the thing in Photoshop.

I usually save as an illustrator 5 .eps, an illustrator 5 .ai, also a 9 and 10 version ai and eps. Put em' in a folder zip/sit them and let them fly,when I am unsure what the person can accept.

This might not help you but I do feel your pain, because I run into it all the time. If I can help ya, gimme a yell.

Yeah torn. I thought these incompatibility issues were as wide-spread as I feared.

Illustrator is a great program, but its increasingly becoming harder and harder to use as a workflow program. All the "pretty" stuff I do in it now, sadly has to be rasterized before sending it out. Which is a shame. I would love to leave everything as vectors, but its more and more just not becoming the case.

Mainly because of trying to send out files to 3rd parties who only have stuff like Corel Draw or some other graphics program that "can" read what I give it, but can't do it as well as I want it to.