I was think about this today....

In light of the sweeping changes with Visual Studio, what do you think will happen when Visual Studio.Net ships? I think it is a safe bet that the current MCSD track will be overhauled. The two core languages will be C++ and VB. C# may be in place as well I suppose. Then again, maybe any language that targets the CLRT will be part of the certification track will be eligible for certification as well.

Of course you know where I am going with this....

Lets say you studied and passed the current crop of VFP exams and now have your MCSD. When the new MCSD comes out, at some point, the current one certification will be retired. My guess is to a timeframe on this is <=2 years. This by the way is pure speculation on my part.

I ask this given all of the work that has been done with respect to the VFP certification effort and in light of a new cert. book soon to be available.

How are you going to feel that possibly - in the next 2 years or so, if you want to stay certified - you will need to dive into .Net head first. Or, will certification by that time not be so important.

FWIW, I think certification - vendor specific certification - is a joke anyway. When you get down to it - it is nothing more than a revenue lineitem. The day comes that line of business ceases to make money - you will then see how certification is not so important from the vendor's standpoint.

And of course, none of you need to be reminded just how difficult it was to get the VFP cert. exam in place for 6.0.

Again, I may be totally off base here. If somebody knows something different with respect to where VFP will stand when .Net certification comes out - please share. I think it is important for people investing their time and money to know where their investments in time and money will stand in the next few years give the great importance placed on certification....


< JVP >