I never remember reading that anywhere thornbird. If memory serves me right, to obtain an ATPL under the old system, you had to have at some point held a CIR. I don't remember it being written anywhere that if you didn't have a CIR you could just do a flight test.
As to whether the standard is the same, I disagree. I did many years of single pilot IFR from piston singles to multi-engine glass cockpit turbo-props. I've now moved to a mutli-crew jet, and while IFR flying is still IFR flying, it's the rest of the operation that bears absolutely no resemblence to IFR flying at all. It's the whole multi-crew management, transport category specifics, that you should be up with to gain an ATPL.
The view I seem to be seeing is that an ATPL is just a piece of paper that everyone should be entitled to without having to prove anything to get it. I don't get it.
morno