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Worth doing MCSD windows store apps certification (70-483, 70-484, 70-485)? RRS feed

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    Can anyone here please comment on the practicality of  doing the MCSD windows store apps development certification seeing how there is a lot of negativity surrounding windows 8 ? I'm not sure if it would be a good investment of my time to prepare for these exams.  70-483 might come in handy because I'm going for the Web apps MCSD as well but I'm not sure about 484 and 485.  From all the research I did about windows 8 app development, it just doesn't seem to attract developers as much as say iOS or Android ?
    • Edited by aks86 Wednesday, January 15, 2014 9:51 PM
    Wednesday, January 15, 2014 9:48 PM

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    Hi, aks86.

    Looking for opinions? Everybody has them. Here's mine; I hope you find them helpful or you can take them with a grain of salt.

    If someone is considering going for an MCSD Store app certification, the C#/XAML route will probably hold more value than the HTML/CSS/JS route. Most apps in the marketplace today were created with C# and XAML.

    As to the value of the Store app MCSD, I suspect it will be more valuable over time. Internally at Microsoft, they are pushing hard to carry the Windows Store app and its marketplace forward into future versions of Windows. It is not going away. If you are considering whether it is worth it or not to learn it now, I rely with a loud resounding YES.

    The C#/XAML store app API is still rather simple today. It has a lot of room for growth. Would you rather learn the bare bones of creating these application now while there are simpler and fewer libraries or would you rather wait a few versions for a much more complex API with many more libraries that will be much harder (harder exams?) to get your arms around?

    I think (as a developer) the following video is of utmost interest to .NET developers needing to know the future of Microsoft application development. It's a keynote from Mary Jo Foley in November. She famously has the inside word with the "going-ons" at Microsoft and has a blog called "All About Microsoft" on ZDNet:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9X94a3WUm4

    At the same time, Microsoft is potentially bringing more respect back to Windows desktop/laptop machines with Windows 9. They know they missed the boat with Windows 8.x for desktop users and are bringing back some more support for classic desktop apps. Check out this blog post:
    http://blogs.computerworld.com/windows/23384/windows-9-will-mean-revenge-desktop?source=cwfb

    The iOS and Android OSs are completely different. If you are thinking of jumping ship before investing to much time in .NET, do so carefully.

    Please understand there is HUGE .NET development community. Please do not underestimate this group. People always resist change. They are resisting the store apps now while it is new (scary?) and Windows forms and WPF are still popular and are useful. As the OS evolves and offer more architectures, there will be more developers using this new platform.

    Good luck with your decision.

    Best wishes, Davin Mickelson

    Wednesday, January 15, 2014 10:56 PM
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    Dave ,

    Thank you very much for your detailed response. 

    Do you think metro is poised to replace WPF eventually ? 

    I think I have made up my mind and will register for the other 2 exams. I may incur a loss of 35$ as a result of the cancellation but microsoft is providing a 3 for one voucher until 31 may 2014 so this might be a good opportunity to use it.

    Thanks again for helping me withmaking my decision.

    Thursday, January 16, 2014 3:05 AM
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    Hi, aks86.

    Please understand that this is all speculation. We are trying to see the future in a crystal ball.

    Yes - I believe that eventually some form of store app/metro UI will eventually replace Windows Forms and WPF. It probably won't like it is today but it may be some form of it. I suspect it will be an API that properly works across the tablet, phone, desktop, and other devices.

    There is not a huge number of upgrades going into the latest versions of WinForms or WPF. However, the web world (ASP.NET MVC, HTML5, CSS3, JS) continues to explode with new updates every six (6) months.

    C# may eventually be supplanted by a new programming language being developed by C#'s founder (Anders Hejlsberg) called TypeScript. It is an advanced form of JavaScript with static data types and class-based OOP. Learn more about it at it's website and from an introduction by Anders himself on Channel 9.
    http://www.typescriptlang.org/
    http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Anders-Hejlsberg-Introducing-TypeScript

    I don't know what exam you are cancelling. I am always sorry to hear when testers lose money to Prometric in these special cases when they do absolutely nothing to deserve it. I consider $35 to be a considerable wasted expense.

    If you've already scheduled an exam, perhaps you can reschedule it for free so long as it is at least 15 days out. Reschedule it out as far as necessary, study, and then take it so you don't lose any money.

    Good luck and don't give up.

    Best wishes, Davin Mickelson

    Thursday, January 16, 2014 7:31 AM
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