Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I never would have finished this book without the infinite patience and support of my wife Caroline. Thank you.

I have had very supportive friends as well. Thomas Yip gave me much appreciated early encouragement and very insightful, extensive feedback on the first version. Steven Baker introduced me to many people within the Rails community who saw the potential when my toy Flex + Rails app was little more than Hello World. Len and Mike Epp have been great friends throughout; thanks especially to Len for his hospitality when I was working on this book from his flat in London. Finally, an enormous thank you to Dima Berastau for convincing me that my book was done, when I still thought that I should delay it for another 3–6 months to add 200–300 more pages to it.

Next, thanks to my father: In late summer 2006, he took time during a visit to read the first 200-page version and contributed numerous helpful grammar suggestions. Most interestingly, I think he finally really understood what I do for a living.

I won’t thank any readers by name, because I would need to name the hundreds of readers who helped me with feedback and encouragement when this book existed in self-published form.