In his blog, last week Andreano Lanusse referred to the Study Guide for Delphi 2006 .NET Certification (PDF) and the Study Guide for Delphi 2006 Win32 Certification (PDF).

Out of curiosity, I read the Win32 one, and found a few interesting tidbits. Notice, though, that I'm somewhat biased, as I don't think programmer's certifications make a lot of sense, as they can prove you know a few class and method names, but not that you know how to program... Anyway, here are a few interesting things (please notice I'm trying to be ironical, I'm not complaining or criticizing!):

  • Not only the guide refers to my Mastering Delphi 2005 book, but also to my Mastering Delphi Update for Delphi 2006. Thanks a lot.
  • The Delphi VCL section description has 5 bullets devoted to exceptions out of 7. Now exception are important, but there is alittle more than those in the VCL.
  • Sample questions 2: "TWinControl is the base class for all controls that are wrappers for Microsoft Windows screen objects". Uhm, I'm not sure. A bitmap seems to a a screen object as well. I think saying a Window's window would have been more precise.
  • 6: "Which options describe what can be done by using polymorphism? The same method name can be called and be executed by different methods." I'd have never checked this!
  • 8 has a typo ("CommandType of ctTable in a TDataSet component" is in fact of the TSQLDataSet component)
almost right