Acknowledgments
To paraphrase the great American poet Jerry Garcia, what a long, strange trip this has been! Making Java Groovy has consumed several years of my life, a fact that leaves me both horrified and endlessly amused. What I do know for sure, is that even though I’m the sole author, I never could have done it alone.
In late 2006, I attended a user group presentation[11] by Jason Rudolph on Grails that changed my life. He started me on my way into the wonderful world of Groovy. The fact that Dierk König et al. had written the fantastic Groovy in Action (Manning, 2007) sealed the deal.
11 I think it was the Spring User Group in Philadelphia. Seriously, support your local Java/Groovy/Grails user groups. They’re a great source of knowledge, networking, and experience.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dierk König, Guillaume Laforge,[12] Paul King,[13] and the other members of the Groovy core team for teaching me how much fun it can be to code in Groovy, through their writings, examples, and, at times, direct assistance. I want to express my heart-felt appreciation to Guillaume for contributing the foreword to my book.
12 Note the lowercase f. He’s not Geordi, although I do occasionally call him Bill.
13 Because he and I have PhDs and work with Groovy, we’re groovydocs together. Russel Winder is one, too.