Acknowledgments

Any technical book is a massive undertaking, due to the number of people required to make sure that it reads well, looks good, and is technically correct. Thus, we have to thank the entire Manning staff, without whom this book would not exist. They did more than just correct our errors and polish our words; they also helped us make integral decisions about the organization and the contents of the book—decisions that we believe improved it dramatically.

In particular, we’d like to thank the three people at Manning who helped us at the most pivotal times: Troy Mott, our acquisitions editor, who initially agreed to take on the book and who stayed with us every step of the way; Katharine Osborne, our development editor, who put in an incredible amount of work to ensure the quality of writing and offered tons of guidance and support along the way; and Marjan Bace, our publisher, who offered some of the biggest challenges regarding our content and organization and initiated some of the best improvements.