Acknowledgments (Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, 2nd Edition)

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, 2rd Ed.

0.5. Acknowledgments

Despite the ever-increasing heft of the books I have written in the last several years, you'll have to take my word for it: I do not delight in making forests tremble with each added word. It's just that the subject matter has grown to outsized proportions. No matter how succinct one tries to be, the pages add up quickly.

A book of this scale and design complexity places enormous burdens on a great many people who turn my mere bytes into gorgeous pages and chapters. Thanks to Tim O'Reilly for continuing to be true to his author-friendly roots, while building a technology powerhouse whose reputation for quality is awe-inspiring. His editorial and production staffs consistently work miracles under extreme deadline pressures. My favorite miracle worker is the editor for both editions of this title, Paula Ferguson. She not only groks the technology, but she instinctively knows what's best for readers and sees to it that the book delivers on the promise.

I also appreciated having someone else who knows this subject look over my shoulder, to make sure I didn't fall asleep at the keyboard while describing the 700^th object property. For this massive second edition, my friend Rob Hoexter—a first-rate user interface designer and DHTML coder from the trenches—sacrificed what should have been a well-deserved multi-week vacation to test my code, find gaffes, and recommend improvements that I incorporated into the text. For reading this reference book from cover to cover while offering insightful comments and maintaining his sanity, Rob deserves a medal.

Although my words have appeared in print for nearly 25 years, no writing of mine has produced as much fan mail (make that email) as the first edition of this book. My true reward, though, comes from having helped you unlock your own talent to create great solutions. Your encouragement has inspired me to do what I hope is an even better job this second time around to guide you through the newest advances in client-side scripting and web development. To new readers, I bid you welcome. Let's all have some fun exploring the power and promise of Dynamic HTML.