>Ed,
>
>Please understand that it's not a question of not trusting Microsoft or the UT members, and since I am so far removed from the MS inner circle that I need a road map to find Redmond, I obviously don't know everything that's going on with the test development.
>
>However, look at it from exactly that perspective. Most of my VFP information comes from this forum and the Microsoft Web Site. There has been a lot of speculation and conjecture on this forum about the timing of the exam, and even the second-hand quotes from Rob Green have been somewhat vague. I try to get as much information as possible from the horse's mouth, the Microsoft certification website. Having the one and only VFP certification test retired before a new one is even close to beta can be a little disconcerting. I was really hoping that by now, almost a year since VFP 6.0 hit the streets, there would at least be a beta exam. I'm seriously worried that by the time the VFP 6 exam goes gold, it will have a limited life, eclipsed by the release of VFP 7 and changes it will bring.
>
>Of course I would rather wait for a comprehensive exam than have a half-assed exam that will bestow a meaningless certification. But a happy medium would be even better. Release the desktop exam, which will probably have a lot less on it that the distributed exam. Let the developers cut their teeth on that, a fully-relaized certification of using VFP as a stand-alone product. Use the results and reactions from that exam to polish up the distributed exam, and release it a few months (not more then 4) later. Think of the desktop exam as
>part 1 of a 2-part certification. I know I will be using the lessons learned in the desktop exam to improve my preparation for the distributed exam.
>
>Bill

The exams are being developed and will be released simultaneously. I have to give lots of credit to the certification group. The VFP 3.0 exam was mosly memorize the language reference. Questions like "What is the third parameter of function X" don't really show skill, but rather memorization. The VFP 6.0 exams will not be that. Also, the certification group was at DevCon, helping the VFP developers develop the exam questions. This was the first time exams have been developed in this way. It will help to make the exams better and more meaningful. I can't speak about the timing, but there are no VJ++ exams yet.