MCSD is outdated. Become an MCPD instead!

I’ve been thinking about getting Microsoft Certification for years. I remember sitting at my desk at Intel, back in 1998, taking a break from C++ debugging in VS5 and browsing the Microsoft Certification web site. I read the requirements and decided that I would like to be an MCSD. Well, life goes on, and getting married, buying a house, traveling, going to grad school, becoming a dad, and generally having a really great time all took priority over certification. And I’m pretty quite happy about those choices!

Now, I’ve got a ton of experience  in C, C++, MFC, ATL and COM programming as well as some pretty respectable VB programming experience going all the way back to VB 4.0. I’m currently working on my first VB2005 project for one of my company’s clients, but I’d like to strengthen that experience with certification so that  future clients know I’m prepared to do .NET programming. That’s why I think this a good time for me to get MS certification. So, I bought a used copy of the MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit. I got a good deal on it too! Two days ago I started posting about starting the certification process, and started studying for my MCSD.

VB.NET: Lesson 1-1 The .NET Framework and the CLR

Today I read the first lesson from chapter 1, “Introduction to the .NET Framework”, in  Developing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Visual C#.NET . I read through the lesson and took the notes shown in the section below as I read. After I finished reading, I thought “ok, that’s all good stuff to know, but I want to DO something!” So, I found an article in the MSDN library on viewing the contents of an assembly: How to: View Assembly Contents. This was actually very easy and helped me attach the material in this lesson to something concrete.

You use the MISL disassembler to view the assembly. If you haven’t used it before, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s easy to run. Just go to “Visual Studio Tools” on your start menu and select “Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt”. In the DOS window that opens, type “ILDASM” which will launch the MISL disassembler in it’s own window. The MSDN “How to” article explains the rest. I recommend that you do this exercise, but don’t get sidetracked by trying to decipher everything in the manifest. It’s enough just to get the general idea of what’s in there. 

8/9/07 Update: I won’t be posting about any more lessons in this series. Read: MCSD is Outdated. Become an MCPD Instead to see why.

8/16/07 Update: If you would like to study for the MCTS or MCPD, then start here: Join me in studying for MCTS exam 70-536.

Join me in preparing for Microsoft VB.NET certification

I’m an old programmer, but relatively new to .NET. I have some experience with VB2005 programming and would like to get certified, so I’m studying for Microsoft exam 70-306, “Developing and Implementing Windows Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET”. I’m using the book Developing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Visual C#.NET  by Matthew A. Stoecker, published by Microsoft Press in 2003.

I really don’t like to study alone, so I’m inviting you  to join me. I’ll be posting my  questions, answer, and discoveries as I complete each lesson and lab in this text and I’m hoping you will also post your  observations, questions and answers in comments to the post for each lesson and lab.

8/9/07 Update: I won’t be studying for exam 70-306 after all. Read this post to see why: MCSD is Outdated. Become an MCPD Instead

8/16/07 Update: Join me in studying for the MCTS and MCPD. Start by reading here: Join me in studying for MCTS exam 70-536.