Acknowledgments

The English essayist Joseph Addison once described an editor as someone who “rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.” I don’t know if that’s true for editors in some of the more sedate publishing nooks (novels and cookbooks and such), but I think it applies perfectly to the rigors of computer-book editing. Why? Well, the computer industry (and the web in particular) is so exacting that even the teensiest authorial (or editorial) lapse could result in a book that sows confusion and consternation rather than certainty and delight.