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I passed the CLAD


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Up until recently, NI employees couldn't take the various LV certification exams because there just weren't enough graders and priority was given to customers. That's changed this year, and today I took the CLAD, along with a large faction of NI, including many of the LV R&D team. Yes, I did pass. I thought it was an ok exam, with a few wording problems I hope we can get cleared up for future test takers. I only had a serious problem on two of the questions, one of which was wording and the other was a case of me knowing too much about how LV works behind the scenes.

CLD? Maybe. But a part of me wants to hold out for a CLD exam that includes LV classes. I mean, I'd kind of be undermining the prostelytyzing I've been doing the last few years if I actually admitted that someone could be a true LabVIEW developer without classes!

On a tangent note:

Q: What are you if you are naked while answering a 40-question multiple choice exam about LabVIEW?

A: SkyCLAD!

Q: What are you if you swim 1 mile, bike 20 miles, run 2 miles and then take a a 40-question multiple choice exam about LabVIEW?

A: IronCLAD!

Others are welcome to try their own puns, but I should warn you... the only other word in English that uses the letters "clad" together is "clade" and making jokes off of it won't be easy. You may have more success in other languages.

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QUOTE (Aristos Queue @ Feb 3 2009, 02:08 AM)

Up until recently, NI employees couldn't take the various LV certification exams because there just weren't enough graders and priority was given to customers. That's changed this year, and today I took the CLAD, along with a large faction of NI, including many of the LV R&D team. Yes, I did pass. I thought it was an ok exam, with a few wording problems I hope we can get cleared up for future test takers. I only had a serious problem on two of the questions, one of which was wording and the other was a case of me knowing too much about how LV works behind the scenes.

Most I know had the same issues. It's nice to know that NI Employees aren't totally immune to these problems either.....

Congrats

Shane.

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I think that by letting NI employees take the certification test, the tests themselves will be improved for reasons just like this. When I took the CLAD I remember a few questions that were a matter of opinion.

I can't remember the exact wording but it was some thing like which method would you use to save a set of recorded data? Binary, ASCII, TDMS, or some thing else. The answer highly depends on what you would like to do with the saved data, if it needs to be user readable I would use ASCII. If there is a security issue with not wanting anyone to tamper with the file, I would use Binary. If the data was a large file with complicated data types I may look into TDMS.

By having NI employees run into these problems maybe the tests will be less opinionated.

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QUOTE (Aristos Queue @ Feb 2 2009, 06:08 PM)

CLD? Maybe. But a part of me wants to hold out for a CLD exam that includes LV classes. I mean, I'd kind of be undermining the prostelytyzing I've been doing the last few years if I actually admitted that someone could be a true LabVIEW developer without classes!

The CLD tests if you can design and implement a state machine. The CLA tests if you can design classes.

<shrug> I'm actually pretty OK with drawing the lines like that. Even with classes, we still do a lot of our work with some form of producer/consumer pattern, usually including a state machine. Someone who has passed the CLD has shown that they are comfortable actually working in the LabVIEW environment with our bread-and-butter tools. I can give that person the design for a class and expect it will get coded, even if that person isn't comfortable with OO principles.

Designing a good class, however, is a whole different skill set. You have to know something about OO, and you have to know how the class will be used in your system, which means knowing how the interactions with the other classes in the system. That's working at the architect level, so it's better covered in the CLA exam.

Honestly, I'm not even sure how you'd implement a toy problem for the CLD that was OO-friendly without requiring OO as part of the solution.

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QUOTE (ACS @ Feb 12 2009, 11:19 AM)

The CLD tests if you can design and implement a state machine. The CLA tests if you can design classes.

Lest someone read this and get confused, I should point out that LV Class programming is not required on the CLA. You can certainly use them if you want, but they are not a required component of your architecture. I did not use LV Classes in my code for the CLA (and I passed).

-D

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QUOTE (Darren @ Feb 12 2009, 11:24 AM)

I did not use LV Classes in my code for the CLA (and I passed).
Passed? You're lucky I wasn't your grader!!! Congratulations, Mr. CLNCA (Certified LabVIEW No Class Architect).

(In full disclosure, I can't razz Darren too much since I am not sure I could pass the CLA, LV classes or not. Remember that G programming is only a hobby for me; I spend most of my time architecting C++. Or, to put it another way, I write in text so you don't have to.)

QUOTE

If you die of a heart attack while taking a multiple choice test on LabVIEW, are you a CLADaver?

Ah. We need more users like this. :-)

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QUOTE (Aristos Queue @ Feb 12 2009, 05:34 PM)

Congratulations, Mr. CLNCA (Certified LabVIEW No Class Architect).

I believe this statement will be my motivation to actually write the blog article on LabVIEW Object-Oriented Programming that has been brewing in the back of my brain for months now. You have been warned...

-D

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QUOTE (Darren @ Feb 12 2009, 05:54 PM)
I believe this statement will be my motivation to actually write the blog article on LabVIEW Object-Oriented Programming that has been brewing in the back of my brain for months now. You have been warned...
Good! These users can finally get some practical advice... I've been feeding them theory for two years, and I think some of them were starting to believe in it. :o

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QUOTE (Aristos Queue @ Feb 2 2009, 08:08 PM)

Up until recently, NI employees couldn't take the various LV certification exams because there just weren't enough graders and priority was given to customers. That's changed this year, and today I took the CLAD, along with a large faction of NI, including many of the LV R&D team. Yes, I did pass. I thought it was an ok exam, with a few wording problems I hope we can get cleared up for future test takers. I only had a serious problem on two of the questions, one of which was wording and the other was a case of me knowing too much about how LV works behind the scenes.

CLD? Maybe. But a part of me wants to hold out for a CLD exam that includes LV classes. I mean, I'd kind of be undermining the prostelytyzing I've been doing the last few years if I actually admitted that someone could be a true LabVIEW developer without classes!

On a tangent note:

Q: What are you if you are naked while answering a 40-question multiple choice exam about LabVIEW?

A: SkyCLAD!

Q: What are you if you swim 1 mile, bike 20 miles, run 2 miles and then take a a 40-question multiple choice exam about LabVIEW?

A: IronCLAD!

Others are welcome to try their own puns, but I should warn you... the only other word in English that uses the letters "clad" together is "clade" and making jokes off of it won't be easy. You may have more success in other languages.

Q: What would you call a program written to take the CLAD test for you?

A: AutoCLAD

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