Acknowledgments

Writing a book is a huge project. This is my second book, and somehow I thought it would be easier this time around. It wasn’t. The original four-month estimate to write the manuscript has stretched out into much more than a year. I’m very happy with the results, though. Writing a book about a subject so near and dear as Jess is to me is a dodgy business: I think I’ve steered clear of the minefields of self-indulgence and created something that will be useful to everyone interested in rule-based software.

Writing a book is such a huge project, in any event, that no one does it alone—least of all me. I’ve had help from many kind, generous, and talented people during the whole time this book was being developed.

One standout has been Bob Orchard of Canada’s National Research Council. Bob is the author of the FuzzyJ toolkit and the FuzzyJess extension that adds fuzzy logic to Jess. He’s been an active member of the Jess community for years. He generously contributed the essay in chapter 16 showing how to apply the principles of fuzzy logic to the HVAC Controller example. He also served as both a technical reviewer and a technical proofreader for this book and provided an exhaustive list of my (embarrassingly many) typos in the first draft of the manuscript. Thanks, Bob, for everything!

Next I must mention the denizens of the Jess mailing list, a friendly community of smart and generous people who have come together over the years that Jess has existed. The following people have helped find bugs, helped develop new features, or contributed their own projects to the Jess community: Abel Martinez, Al Davis, Alan Moore, Alex Jacobson, Alex Karasulu, Andreas Rasmusson, Andrew Marshall, Ashraf Afifi, Benjamin Good, Blaine Bell, Bob Orchard, Bob Trelease, Bruce Douglas, Chad Loder, Charles May, Cheruku Srini, Dan Larner, Dave Barnett, Dave Carlson, Dave Kirby, David Bruce, David Li, David Young, Drew van Duren, Duane Steward, Ed Katz, Emmanuel Pierre, Eric Eslinger, Fang Liu, George Rudolph, Glen Tarbox, Glenn Williams, Henrik Eriksson, Ian de Beer, J.P. van Werkhoven, Jacek Gwizdka, Jack Fitch, Jack Kerkhof, James Gallogly, James Owen, Jason Smith, Javier Torres, John Callahan, John Collins, Joszef Toth, Juraj Frivolt, Karl Mueller, Ken Bertapelle, Kenny Macleod, Lakshmi Vempati, Lars Rasmusson, Laurence Leff, Mariusz Nowostawski, Matt Bishop, Matthew Johnson, Michael Coen, Michael Friedrich, Michael Futtersack, Michal Fadljevic, Michelle Dunn, Mikael Rundqvist, Mike Finnegan, Mike Isenberg, Mike Lucero, Miroslav Madecki, Nancy Flaherty, Ning Zhong, Norman Ghyra, Oliver Hoffman, Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein, Pau Ortega, Peter Hanson, Peter Klotz, Ralph Grove, Richard Long, Rob Jefson, Robert Gaimari, Russ Milliken, S. S. Ozsariyildiz, Sander Faas, Scott Kaplan, Scott Trackman, Sebastian Varges, Seung Lee, Sidney Bailin, Simon Blackwell, Simon Hamilton, Steve Bucuvalas, Thomas Barnekow, Thomas Gentsch, Travis Nelson, William E. Wheeler, Win Carus, and Yang Xiao. I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone important; please forgive the oversight.

The staff at Manning Publications, both past and present, are talented people and real professionals. I thank Marjan Bace for his guidance and eye for the big picture; Lianna Wlasiuk for her useful and practical advice in the first stages of writing; Ann Navarro for her expertise in editing; Tiffany Taylor for the tremendous skill and effort she applied to meticulously copy-editing and formatting my ill-formed manuscript; Syd Brown, who produced the beautiful example of the typographer’s art you see before you; Maggie Mitchell, for proofreading; Mary Piergies, for overseeing the production of this book; Ted Kennedy for gathering a team of excellent reviewers and organizing the results; Dan Barthel, who got me started on this book in the first place; and, undoubtedly, many others who worked behind the scenes.

Quite a few technical reviewers and friends read the manuscript and provided detailed and useful comments. This book is vastly improved by their input; any remaining problems are, of course, my fault. I thank Andrew Grothe, Bob Tre-lease, David Young, Jeff Wang, John Crabtree, John Mitchell, Mark Watson, Michael J. Smith, Roedy Green, Said Tabet, Ted Neward, and Daniel Selman (and of course Bob Orchard) for reading and commenting on the manuscript.

I deeply appreciate the support I’ve received from my management at Sandia, both for encouraging Jess’s development over the years and for permission to write this book in my copious free time. Thanks to Paul Nielan, Ken Washington, Jim Costa, Len Napolitano, and Mim John. I’m also deeply indebted to my innovative “business partner” Craig Smith, who handles Jess licensing with aplomb.

Finally, I want to thank my family for their encouragement and support. Every year with a preschooler is an adventure, and this last one has been no exception. My wife Stacia deserves special thanks for picking up the slack when I was busy writing. And to my daughter Danielle: by the time this sentence is printed, I bet you will be able to read it. I love you both; this book is for you.