Perl Certification is one of those hot-button issues that refuses to die. Thankfully, it hasn't been hotly debated in the last year or so. Hopefully it will stay that way; it's a very polarizing topic.
Regardless of the merits or drawbacks behind a Perl Certification program, there are a few things that are missing. This press release highlights a major hurdle to a certification program: publication of training materials.
[POSTGRESQL: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING] will also serve as the textbook for the 'PostgreSQL Certified Software Engineer' (PgSCE) program for database designers and programmers, offered this fall at Toronto's Centennial College and online through AdaptiveTutoring.com and PostgreSQL, Inc.
The problem is that it would have to be a *real* test, graded by human beings. The test could include multiple choice and/or fill-in-the-blank, but it should definitely include sections where the tester would be required to give small code samples.
Now, stuff like Brainbench I don't consider a real test, since it's strictly multiple choice and some of the questions are definitely in need of review. Plus, your score is not only based on what you got right, but how fast you entered the correct answer (I think). Some questions are weighted more than others as well - who decides which ones are more important? How do you know?
Another question then arises. Should it be pass/fail, or should a score be given? Or both?
Well, anyway, I don't think it's a big deal these days because employers seem to be looking for people who can do Perl, mod_perl, C, C++, Java, some-cots-software-you-never-heard-of, CGI, HTML, Shell scripting,
Having certification in one thing doesn't mean much when you're looking for 10 things.
Re:It's possible
pne on 2002-04-20T11:15:57
Now, stuff like Brainbench [brainbench.com] I don't consider a real test, since it's strictly multiple choice and some of the questions are definitely in need of review. Plus, your score is not only based on what you got right, but how fast you entered the correct answer (I think).
And also on whether you can remember the order of arguments to some obscure Perl keyword, or how formats work.
Since Perl is so big, I don't think there are many (if any) who know the whole language by heart. And I don't think there's anything wrong with firing off a quick `perldoc -f select` if you've forgotten which order things go in, or how to use a keyword you use rarely. Part of the tests seem to be seeing how well you've memorised the API, which is not terribly useful in real life.
