.Net 3.0 - ASP.NET web apps and ADO.NET; is Microsoft jerking us?

So now instead of taking one exam you have to take two? I just looked at the "skills being measured" sections of bothm exams and basically, the ADO.NET part was taken out of the Web apps exam to create another "exam". This doesn't really apply to me since I only have to take teh upgrade exams to get 3.5 certified however. Has anyone else noticed this?

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JDMurray

Your point is that it now costs twice as much to get the same cert? Was it only one exam before? When did it become two?

DeepCode

Previously, on .NET 2.0, the web apps exam COVERED and included ADO.NET. With the .NET 3.5 generation of exams, ADO.NET has been taken out of the WEB apps exam and is now a fully blown exam on it's own.

davidinnz

It's interesting those changes. From memory MCTS used to only have two .NET options, Windows Forms or ASP.NET?

I'm wondering if the new look is reflecting something I have discussed with other developers from time to time. Remember the days when people thought programmers would be obsolete because it woudl be so high-level and simple? The opposite has happened, and it seems to me almost impossible that anyone would have a really in depth knowledge of all of the .NET technologies. Sure, you can have a fundamental working knowledge of them all, but dig into any one deeply and it quickly becomes a big topic.

So in a sense, it seems that they are recognising the more specialised requirements of each tecnology. For example, I see the ADO.NET one has now incorporated LINQ and Entity Famework. The latter would be a classic example of something very simple so far as "get up and running by drag and drop" goes, but is quite complex beyond that.

My suspicion for some time has been that specialised programmers may become more in demand. I could be wrong. But say I had a given project that hinged on a lot of WCF.. would I want in house programmers figuring it as they went, or would I choose to simply get a certified programmer in who can hit the ground running?

Just my own thoughts, pondering really. .NET is in my opinion becoming a very very big beast.

JDMurray

davidinnz wrote: »

My suspicion for some time has been that specialised programmers may become more in demand.

The problem is that Microsoft keeps obsoleting its own specialized technologies every 2-3 years. It seems like just when I start to use a newer Microsoft technology (i.e., a "new way of doing the same programming jobs"), Microsoft launches a new technology that obsoletes it, and I feel like I've wasted my time learning how to specialize in it. DDE to OLE to OLE2 to COM to DNA to COM+ to .NET to everything that was before LINQ to everything that will be after it, etc. I wonder when I can ever feel confidant that what I'm learning (from Microsoft) will still be useful in five or ten years.

I find the whole thing of "new and improved" software technologies difficult to keep up with and very frustrating. This sort of thing goes on in the Java world too, but it seems at a much slower pace. Maybe it's time I specialized in embedded systems using C and assembly.

That's a world that doesn't use the phrase "new and improved" very often.

DeepCode

I guess that's how MS keeps their "competitive edge"; by the time competitors catch up with LINQ, they have the next generation developed. VS 08 is relatively young and VS 10 is almost ready.

JDMurray

.Net 4.0 and VS2K10...argh. It took me long enough to give up VS2K5 for VS2K8 and VB6 for VS2K3.

I'm a full-time Java programmer now, so at least Eclipse, NetBeans, and the Java JDK seems to hardly change (since Java 6, that is).