LabVIEW
Anyone taken the Certified Labview Architect exam?
Khalid asked
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Can we bring along our favourite LabVIEW.INI file for use at the exam? That would save some initial setting-up time and make me more "at home." Of course, the instructor can check the INI beforehand to ensure there are no undocumented SuperSecret.... settings in there 
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My concern regarding "studying in the environment you will be tested" is that most of us won't know until we click on the LabVIEW icon at the exam location. If we did know we might not have access to that version (your and and my friend's experience with 6.1). As the machines we were using at the exam site were apparently setup to teach a LabVIEW course vs give the CLD exam (no floppie drives) it is quite possible that they would have 8.0 on them now, which would be a REALLY alien environment, particularly as it isn't nearly as configurable to look like our much more familiar "classic =<6.1" one (do the marketing/development people consider the lost productivity incurred with these "improvements"?). Unfortunately, with the CLD at least, time is sparse and any disonance caused by these other issues can make all the difference between success and failure.
As far as the various discounts I'm privey to the biggest cost for me was spending two days not doing billable work. Had the exam remained a one parter rather than a CLAD and a CLD it would have cost me a lot less. Oh well enough sour grapes! Going to get out into the 60 degF weather here in Salt Lake City and look at the snow on the nearby mountains. Hope to go slide down some of them this weekend!
P.M.
And in a rare moment of disagreement with Ben, when I took the live online CLD prep course two years ago, I asked whether one had to be completely current on the "latest" version and was told no. This would only seem right, as a new version comes out almost yearly, and while they usually have a number of new and cool features, the point of having a Certification process is to demonstrate a level of compentancy with the tool, not that one knows every aspect of the latest released version. The vast majority of LabVIEWers of all skill levels do not get access to the latest version of LabVIEW for some time after its release. Nothing in the prep course required a knowledge of some aspect unique to the then current version, more an overall conceptual understanding of developing programs in LabVIEW and a knowledge of its major features. The only real way to develop compentecy and skills in almost any complex endevour is to use the tools/instruments repeatedly over a wide variety of "projects", which would be extremely difficult with a recently released version. LabVIEW 8 has been out less than 6 months, so an expectation of the "average" skilled LabVIEWer having had the opportunity to delve into its minutia is unrealistic, and yet this same LabVIEWer could be an extremely skilled practioner of the art in labVIEW 7.1.1. The problem comes up when (s)he goes to the exam site at TechnoLabResourcesIncCorp to take the exam and the machine(s) they are dedicating to the exam happen to be the ones they have set up for their LabVIEW training course next week, set up with, understandably, the latest version, LabVIEW 8. Does the mental disonance caused when LabVIEW 8 comes up in the project mode, has the palettes in different locations, etc., mean that the testee is not a competent LabVIEW programmer? But as you noted Ben, and as all of us , for the most part VERY (myself excepted) skilled LabVIEW programmers did last summer during the NIWeek "code off", we immediately changed the 7.1.1 environment to something familiar to us. If you don't know how to do this, or if it is for the large part undoable, there is a loss of productivity, and a distraction from what is really being tested. With what is a pretty limited time limit to take the test (or code off against someone else) that lack of productivity can make the difference between success and failure. Do I expect that all Cert exams be given in v5.1, no, but should you be thrown into a very different 8.0 environment only months after it is released? I'm already annoyed that the environment has become less configurable, to make it somehow more approachable to the new user (can you say BIG icons on the diagram), but at the same time cut into the productivity of those who have been using it for quite a while as they try and retrain themselves to negotiate the new landscape, spend time looking for the function that use to be a click in the upper left and is now hidden is some other location. Its like while you were asleep at home someone sneaks in and moves your furniture around. When you get up in the dark you crash into the couch, trip over the chair. The furniture is still all there, but you will crash around for a while to you figure it all out, and untimately not make it to the loo in time!
Rant off, lunch done, back to work.
And in a rare moment of disagreement with Ben, when I took the live online CLD prep course two years ago, I asked whether one had to be completely current on the "latest" version and was told no. This would only seem right, as a new version comes out almost yearly, and while they usually have a number of new and cool features, the point of having a Certification process is to demonstrate a level of compentancy with the tool, not that one knows every aspect of the latest released version. The vast majority of LabVIEWers of all skill levels do not get access to the latest version of LabVIEW for some time after its release. Nothing in the prep course required a knowledge of some aspect unique to the then current version, more an overall conceptual understanding of developing programs in LabVIEW and a knowledge of its major features. The only real way to develop compentecy and skills in almost any complex endevour is to use the tools/instruments repeatedly over a wide variety of "projects", which would be extremely difficult with a recently released version. LabVIEW 8 has been out less than 6 months, so an expectation of the "average" skilled LabVIEWer having had the opportunity to delve into its minutia is unrealistic, and yet this same LabVIEWer could be an extremely skilled practioner of the art in labVIEW 7.1.1. The problem comes up when (s)he goes to the exam site at TechnoLabResourcesIncCorp to take the exam and the machine(s) they are dedicating to the exam happen to be the ones they have set up for their LabVIEW training course next week, set up with, understandably, the latest version, LabVIEW 8. Does the mental disonance caused when LabVIEW 8 comes up in the project mode, has the palettes in different locations, etc., mean that the testee is not a competent LabVIEW programmer? But as you noted Ben, and as all of us , for the most part VERY (myself excepted) skilled LabVIEW programmers did last summer during the NIWeek "code off", we immediately changed the 7.1.1 environment to something familiar to us. If you don't know how to do this, or if it is for the large part undoable, there is a loss of productivity, and a distraction from what is really being tested. With what is a pretty limited time limit to take the test (or code off against someone else) that lack of productivity can make the difference between success and failure. Do I expect that all Cert exams be given in v5.1, no, but should you be thrown into a very different 8.0 environment only months after it is released? I'm already annoyed that the environment has become less configurable, to make it somehow more approachable to the new user (can you say BIG icons on the diagram), but at the same time cut into the productivity of those who have been using it for quite a while as they try and retrain themselves to negotiate the new landscape, spend time looking for the function that use to be a click in the upper left and is now hidden is some other location. Its like while you were asleep at home someone sneaks in and moves your furniture around. When you get up in the dark you crash into the couch, trip over the chair. The furniture is still all there, but you will crash around for a while to you figure it all out, and ultimately not make it to the loo in time!
Rant off, lunch done, back to work.
