NYCPHP Meetup

[Tim Gales]

Daniel Kushner writes:

> On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 17:22:14 -0400, Tim Gales 
> <tgales at tgaconnect.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > Maybe you could certify someone in a reduced
> > skill set space like PHP running together with Apache --
> > but there you'd be getting closer to the AMP style 
> certification and 
> > away from the ZEND idea of certification.
> 
...

> I would like to respond to the last three word in your last 
> paragraph: "ZEND idea of certification". Although this is 
> definitely Zend's idea of certification, it is also the idea 
> of a very respected group that helped make PHP what it is 
> today whether they be core developers, library developers, 
> book authors, educators, or evangelists (list in no 
> particular order). These people have worked very hard and 
> have done an amazing job. IMHO their creation is the best 
> tool available today that can demonstrate expert proficiency in PHP.

I would agree with you that is not solely Zend's idea 
of certification -- there are indeed many people who have 
done a *lot* for PHP who agree there should be some sort of 
standard set for being a PHP programmer.

But what I am saying is that I find it hard to put 
much stock in the value of a certification for a 
simple language which can be learned in an afternoon -- 
it doesn't make any sense.

The language is great. I love it. But it is just a tool.

Take for example public accountants. They are probably 
the most well known case of being certified to do something 
(at least for U.S businessmen who would hire an account 
or an accounting firm)-- CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant.
It means that the accountant is certified to have a 
knowledge of generally accepted accounting procedures. 

Off the top of my head I would guess more than ninety 
percent of CPA's use Microsoft Excel as their spreadsheet 
of choice. Further, almost without exception, all 
Excel users know much of the little language that 
drives Excel spreadsheets 

In that little language you have all the familiar 
building blocks of a programming language:

variables, built-in functions, formulas (which 
are somewhat comparable to procedures), 
operators (with precedence that can be overridden 
by the use of parenthesis), libraries of routines, 
conditional execution constructs such as: if - else if, 
odbc connections -- even templates to 
help separate presentation from content 
(the analogy here to php is almost scary).

I have never seen an accountant's business card 
that says: 'Microsoft Excel Certified'

Now would you have the web development community 
believe that it would be of value to have 
something like: 'ZEND Certified in PHP' 
(or something to that effect) on *their* 
business cards?

Further, you make it sound like anybody who is 
anybody in the PHP world is behind this initiative.

Don't you admit that are in fact many 'somebodies' 
in the PHP world who are rather noticeably silent 
on this thing?

Some proponents for Perl certification described 
the vote at an OSCON meeting as being 100 to 7 
in favor of certification.

The reality is that half of the people to whom 
the vote was put were 'noticeably silent' in that 
they abstained from voting.
 
http://teachmeperl.com/perlcert/OSCON_vote.html

Of course this 'noticeable silence' (in both 
situations) is open to interpretation.

T. Gales & Associates
'Helping People Connect with Technology'

http://www.tgaconnect.com