8.0 is B7334. It's really not much different than Xe in any place important to you as a CNC. I trained on B7334 and virtually everything I learned in class transferred back to B7333. I didn't learn much, mind you, but it was transferable. The books came in handy the first few weeks, and then I discovered the online helps have a lot of the same information...and other times the books leave out the finer details which really get you in tune with your system. Learn by your mistakes, but make them in your sandbox or DEV environment.
8.9 is another animal all together, but it still shares enough common threads to make it worth your while as a training opportunity. Concepts like package builds and deployments, ESU's, Service Packs (now Tools Releases) haven't changed and neither has the basic CNC toolset. Just wait until they get to the section on UDC's and the Data Dictionary. You will be reminded of 9th grade health class.
There are obvious enhancements in certain areas and stark differences in others. For instance, support for Access is still included in 8.9, but the JDELocal database is now stored in an MSDE database instead of Access format. That's just one of many differences. If your company is not planning on upgrading to 8.9 any time soon, you may be better off with heavy OJT and lots of time spent reading old posts on this message board.
