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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

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Certificate in Programming A5, PLEASE!

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    Certificate in Programming A5, PLEASE!

    Following a recent topic by Eric Johnson, about his companies policy to move everything to MS Access 2K, I would like to suggest that things like this are bound to happen so long as Visual Basic (& thus VBA) is pretty much the industry standard programming language. Just take a look at the IT courses offered by most colleges and it is all VB6. That is often why companies insist on MS Office, because they know that they can find professionally qualified people to lever Office with VB6 & VBA.

    Perhaps the battle against MS will never be on equal terms unless Alpha organise a certification in programming course recognised by certified bodies in the USA & here in the UK (The Association of Certified IT Professionals). There are lots of colleges offering certification in VB6, and this is fuelling demand for MS products. People pay well for such courses leading to a recognised qualification, and the Govt also gives annual grants to anyone wishing to learn IT skills.

    If colleges could offer a certificate in programming A5 with Xbasic, this might be the most important way to get Alpha mainstream. It would also offer companies using Alpha a guarantee of the quality of the programmer, as well as the security that they can easily source other certified Alpha programmers should they wish to.

    You know the saying when buying a shop is POSITION, POSITION, POSITION! Well, in IT it's CERTIFICATION, CERTIFICATION, CERTIFICATION!

    Alpha could set up a course by post that is recognised by the professional bodies, charge a nice fee, obtain govt grants, and make a nice profit whilst getting A5 properly recognised. This, I suspect, would be the bomb that shakes mighty Microsoft!

    #2
    RE: Certificate in Programming A5, PLEASE!

    I would also like to see a course on Alpha programming, and think certification would have value. But somehow I don't think it will be the bomb to rock Microsoft. Mostly, Access, Word, Excel plus Visual Basic NEEDS training - by comparison Alpha Five is simply not that hard. The real training that is needed is less on the software and more on information technology. IE what is a normalized database? how do you set up data flow for accounting, inventory etc etc. Forget the platform, its simply how does the world work in the language of data. Alpha has no need to mix it up here. Just supply solutions. An Alpha Cerification would have to be pretty tough to be effective, but then there wouldn't be enough certified people to make an impression. And the certification would relate to using the platform, not understanding data flow in the world at large. It would be one option as part of a course program.

    Good thought. Quite a challenge to implement.

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      #3
      RE: Certificate in Programming A5, PLEASE!

      Hi Steve,

      I thought about your post, especially the comment

      "..The real training that is needed is less on the software and more on information technology. IE what is a normalized database? how do you set up data flow for accounting, inventory etc etc. Forget the platform, its simply how does the world work in the language of data.."

      I agree, and know that I need help in this area. Perhaps anyone would like to contribute some ideas or good books they know about these issues. For normalisation, the best book i have is "Database Design for Mere Mortals" by M. Hernandez (it could be Fernandez, but I don't have the book at hand to check).

      If anyone knows other sources that deal with the issues named by Steve then this probably would help lots of beginners like me.

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        #4
        RE: Certificate in Programming A5, PLEASE!

        Shaun,

        My daughter bought me a copy of "Relational Database Design, Clearly Explained", by Jan L. Harrington, (Morgan Kaufman Press, for my birthday. (She also got me a copy of the Hernandez book mentioned above.) I think that both are excellent books and bring the "mystique" of relational database concepts to the point that, when you read them, a voice in your head says, "Of course, that's so obvious..."

        If I only had one choice I think it would be "Relational Databse Design..." but, if you really want to get this stuff down, you should have both. The authors come at the same concepts from slightly different approches, and I have found that this helps me to triangulate more easily on the main points.

        I would also like to see some kind of book that offered a similar way of explaining conceptualization, structure, design and planing XBasic applications...

        Best regards,

        Geoff Hollander

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