Acknowledgments

From Ben Forta: First and foremost, I must thank the Allaire Spectra development team for creating a product that's destined to change the face of Web application development forever. Special thanks to Jeremy Allaire and Charles Teague for their invaluable input in planning this book as well as for providing the foreword and the cover quote.

Thanks to my co-authors, Ashley King, David Aden (with John Stanard), Jeff Tapper, Raymond Camden, and Richard Ragan for their outstanding contributions.

Thanks to Allaire Tech Support members and consultants Amy Wong, Debbie Dickerson, Johnnie Mataska, Joshua Boughey, Kurt Mossman, Nicholas Calenda, and Skip Klobucher for finding the time to check this book for technical accuracy.

Thanks again to everyone at Macmillan, especially Susan Dunn for yet another superb development job. A very special thank you to my acquisitions editor, Angela Kozlowski, who has the unenviable job of keeping me on track and on schedule—a task no mortal should have to endure.

And finally, thank you to my wife, Marcy, and our children for all the love, support, and encouragement a man could ask for. You are the reason, the motivation, and the inspiration.

From David Aden: I have a better understanding now of why authors always seem to want to thank their families and friends after working on a book—the thanks is well deserved. Special thanks goes to John Tilton and Andrew Hewitt, two very good ColdFusion (and now Spectra) developers: You guys are great to work with. I love your enthusiasm for taking on new challenges. To my sons, Jason and Jesse, who put up with their dad not being around most of the Christmas holiday—thank you very much. I'm not sure you guys know just how happy and proud I am to be your father. To my wife, who manages to both motivate me to keep my nose to the grindstone and help make the going fun—thank you.

From Ashley King: Thanks to Stephanie King, Mike Nimer, Libby Wilson, Sue Hove, Teri DeMarco, and all the amazing people at Allaire. And many thanks to Beck for keeping me company while I wrote.

From Richard Ragan: I would like to thank my parents, Jack and Janet Ragan, for everything they have done for me. They taught me perseverance, the joy of books, and the importance of learning. A special thanks to my wife, Sally, for all the support, love, and wonderful things she does. Thanks to Ben Forta for a chance to be an author.

From John Stanard: I want to thank my partner, David, for his dedication to getting this book done pretty much on schedule, even when I had to travel for most of December and thus was unable to help as much as we would have liked. He is either a very hard and dedicated worker or a glutton for punishment. I also want to thank the Allaire team for consistently working to improve their products and giving us something that's both functional and professional while being reasonably easy and fun to work with. That's a most unusual combination. Please keep up the good work!

From Jeff Tapper: Thanks is due to Gerry Libertelli, Adam Nowalsky, and David Unger, who have helped mold me into the programmer that I have become.