Today Microsoft has published the release candidate of Avalon and Indigo Beta 1. The most interesting features of this release over the CTP releases of the past is that these bits work on Visual Studio 2005 beta 2, both full and express. Enjoy!

The Avalon team is hiring. For example, here’s a software development engineer (SDE) position on the Avalon team:

“The Avalon team is developing the next generation UI, document and media platform for Longhorn (the next version of Windows). Our group’s mission is to transform the development experience and to leverage the immense power of graphics hardware to bring new and compelling features to Windows and Windows applications. We are looking for an individual contributor to help us design and implement an extensible architecture to provide rich Imaging (codecs, effects, metadata, wide-gamut color) and solutions. This individual will work with other groups across the systems division as well as cross-division that are dependent on this functionality. Strong problem solving and cross-group skills are required. Experience with C, C++, C#, and text and imaging/graphics technologies (e.g. publishing tools, Flash, SVG, etc.) are pluses. At least a BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline preferred.”

If you’re a UI or a media person, I can’t imagine a better place for you then on the Avalon team, and this isn’t the only Avalon-related position we’ve got. In fact, I did a query today and found 25 SDE positions at MS with the keyword “Avalon” in the description. Come one, come all! We’re having an Avalon party at Microsoft and we’d love you to come and join us. : )

Apparently in Whidbey, “dumpbin” (and some other tools that were merely wrappers around link) has been dumped. To get to it now, do “link -dump -dumpbin_options” e.g. “link -dump -exports” does what “dumpbin -exports” used to do. In fact, if you just do “link -dump” the usage you get is labeled as the dumpbin usage. : )

BTW, it looks like “lib,” while still there, is also “link -lib” and “editbin” becomes “link -edit.”

[via Brent Rector]

Imagine the following C program:

// cmdio.c
#include <stdio.h>

void main() {
  char s[256] = "";
  printf(">");
  scanf("%s", s);
  printf("%s\n", s);
}

If I run this from a command shell and I enter “hi” [Enter], it looks like this:

C:\>cmdio.exe
>hi
hi

If I run it again using “lo” [Enter] this time, it would look like this:

C:\>cmdio.exe
>lo
lo

Here’s the thing that blew me away. Anytime I run it after the 1st from the same cmd shell, I get history! For example, running it a 3rd time and pressing [Up Arrow][Enter] gives me this!

C:\>cmdio.exe
>lo
lo

The up and down arrows work, F7 works, F8 works, they all work! When the heck did the shell start keeping track of per sub-command histories and why haven’t I noticed it ’til now?!?

There has been some publisher/author controversy around the length of the 2ed of Windows Forms Programming. WF2 has essentially doubled in size, so I was happy that it looks like we’re be less than twice the number of pages (700 for 1ed vs. estimated 1200 for 2ed). However, when I sent this estimate to my publisher last month, they were less than pleased. Apparently if you go above 800 pages, that tends to scare people and may cut into sales. Here are the options we wrestled with:

1. Cut 400 pages of material out of the WF2 book, leaving it on the cutting room floor
2. Ship a 1200 page WF2 book, increasing the cover price by $10
3. Move 400 pages of material out of the WF2 book, releasing them as freely available PDF files on the web (continuing to index and refer to this material in the printed book)
4. Split the book into two volumes, priced accordingly (probably $35 each)

There’s one piece of information that I’m share later that caused us to lean one way more than the other, but I’m curious what readers would choose when given this choice.

P.S. Believe me when I tell you that we’ve been diligent about cutting stuff that doesn’t belong in the book, although I admit that we’ve been unwilling to cut material that will be generally useful for WinForms programmers, even if it does decrease sales. I’m still hoping we’ll be able to get the page count below 1200, but the upshot is that option #1 has always been a non-starter for me.

P.P.S. I expect the first three reviews on Amazon to be complaints about whichever method we choose and reminising about how wonderful it was to get all of WinForms in 700 pages. Those kinds of complaints should be forwarded to the WinForms team in emails that start with “You put too much good stuff into WinForms 2.0!” : )

Sean Gerety has updated his Avalon sparklines implementation, producing good news, bad news and more good news:

• good news: the sparklines implementation fits nicely in with the other Avalon elements
• bad news: MSFT stock is dead, dead, dead
• good news: sparklines shows how dead MSFT is very nicely!

Skype is the thing that seems to work best for my Australian phone calls (at least once/week if not more) and I love SkypeOut for when I’m just too damn lazy to walk across the room for the phone. If I could use a SkypeIn phone number for getting/sending faxes as well as placing and receiving calls and taking voicemail, I’d have one of those, too (only $4/month!).

That said, MSN7 seems to have fixed the a/v sharing problems through firewalls, so now I use it for that and MS Communicator is damn cool, too.

These communication devices are pretty important for a remote guy. Just today, I had an hour long video counseling session with my boss (it takes me about a year to feel like I’m actually capable of any new job I take) and another hour-long IM with one of the architects on my team arguing about what the hell we’re building anyway. The counseling session would’ve happened no matter where I lived, but even if I lived next door to him in Redmond, I wasn’t going to be sitting in the architect’s living room from 12:30am - 1:30am chatting with him; new comm was the enabler.

Here’re some other things I’ve been reading lately:

• “UML Distilled.” This one’s useful to figure out which way the arrows are pointing these days and what they’re filled with. Or rather, it was useful ’til I started playing with the class designer in VS05b2 which rocks hard. I was able to switch back and forth between the designer and code views, defining types and members in whichever view I found most convenient at the moment, confident in the knowledge that the other representation would be taken care of properly. It was a very satisfying experience.
• “Eclipse Modeling Framework.” I find the writing style in this book and the visuals of the tool being described both leave something to be desired, but the potential is there.
• “Building the Data Warehouse.” Of the three books on this list, this book is easily my favorite. The writing style is very readable and it’s just packed full of useful thinking. Highly recommended.