Acknowledgments

You might expect that writing the second edition of a book is easier than writing the first: just add another few chapters, make some modifications to the existing ones, and you’re done, right? If that sounds plausible, think about writing code for a new project compared with trying to modify an existing application. Now imagine doing it without a compiler or unit tests. Fortunately, although there are precious few ways of really testing the quality of a book, I have been lucky enough to have a great set of people supporting me and keeping the book on the straight and narrow.

Most importantly, my family have put up with me spending evenings writing, rewriting, editing, indexing, and generally not being with them as much as I’d like. My sons don’t seem to have been put off computing by this though, and my oldest son, Tom, is nearly old enough to start programming. It’ll be wonderful for him to have some idea of what I do all day at work. My children are generally in bed when I’m writing, though, so it’s mostly my wife Holly who has dealt with the worst of this. Despite our many commitments, my family is of utmost importance to me, and I’m immensely grateful that they have supported me in this and many other endeavors.