Let me tell you the story about the assessment of my programming assignment for the "Sun Certified Developer for the
Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition" certification.
About six weeks ago I submitted my application. Four weeks later I received my grade:
Grade: F
Score: 0
I was shocked. What could have gone wrong? I looked at the details and studied the comment of the assessor carefully:
"Comment: This one is an automatic failure, the network client does not run with the command: java -jar runme.jar The application runs but no GUI WIndow is ever created. (The server in alone modes appear to work fine.)"
I thought: This can't be true. Such a simple mistake would have caught my attention immediately. I had tested my application before submission thoroughly. I searched for the backup copy of my submission and tried to reproduce the objected issue. There was no way to do so. A colleague (he is Sun Certified Developer) and the head of development of my company confirmed that my application was working properly.
I must admit that I tested my application only on Windows XP platforms before submission. The only reason I could imagine that my application would behave different was the underlying platform. So I installed my application on Debian Linux. But: no sign of the objected issue.
So, what to do? I wrote an email to
SunCert@Prometric.com. I explained my case, then asked for...
"I would like to get into contact with the assessor or at least get a protocol of his/her
test to be able to reproduce the objected issue."
I got response on the same day (good performance):
"Unfortunately, we cannot address your question at this support address.
A copy of your communication has been forewarded to SUN for resolution.
Please look for a response from SUN."
One week passed - no answer from Sun (bad performance). In the meantime I managed to install Solaris 10 (quite a beast). I can now confirm that my application runs on Solaris 10. But who cares?
Could the email have been lost? I forwarded the message to
who2contact@central.sun.com. That was about one week ago. Still no answer. It seems Sun doesn't like me. Sort of incompatability.
This is where my story ends. I hope it was not too boring. If you want to know what will happen next check back in the future. I will keep this
thread updated.
Thanks for listening to my story,
Bernhard Pauler
[ June 06, 2005: Message edited by: Bernhard Pauler ]