acknowledgments Putting together a book like this is no easy feat, and many people behind the scenes worked countless hours to get the book into your hands. First and foremost, everyone at Manning deserves all the thanks we can give them. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to create such a great book for you. We interacted frequently with a few individuals from Manning and would like to specifically mention them. We'd like to thank Troy Mott, our acquisitions editor, who originally came to us to work on this book and helped us through thick and thin. Sara Onstine, our development editor, guided us through the formalities of writing a book like this. And Marjan Bace, our publisher, always challenged us to find ways to improve the book's content and organization. We'd also like to thank our book's production team. Lianna Wlasiuk, Tiffany Tay- lor, and Melody Dolab, our copyeditors and proofreader, read the entire manuscript and made sure everything was organized and presented properly. Nick Howard, our technical proofreader, caught errors that we didn't know were there. Over the course of the development of the book, many people generously volun- teered to review it to help make it as good as it could be. These reviewers deserve a tre- mendous amount of credit for the impact they made through their feedback. Our thanks to Pradeep Elankumaran, Brent Collier, Adam Bair, Philip Hallstrom, Mike Stok, Alex Vollmer, Coby Randquist, Jerry Cheung, Greg Vaughn, Warner Onstine, and Daniel Bretoi. xiv