Acknowledgments
We’d like to thank everyone at Manning, especially our publisher, Marjan Bace; our acquisitions editor, Mike Stephens; and our development editor, Nermina Miller, for their continuous support and help with many aspects of the manuscript. Thanks also to the others at Manning who worked with us in different stages of the project: review editor Karen Tegtmayer, webmaster Gabriel Dobrescu, and not least of all project editor Mary Piergies. Special thanks to copy editor Tiffany Taylor, proofreader Elizabeth Martin, design editor Dottie Marsico, and typesetter Gordan Salinovic. We’d like to also acknowledge the invaluable feedback and dedication of our technical editor Joe Stagner, whose support and encouragement greatly contributed to the success of the book.
A very special thank you to Scott Guthrie of Microsoft and Bertrand Le Roy of Microsoft for writing the forewords to our book. Finally, we also thank the many reviewers of the manuscript: Irena Kennedy, Walter Myers, Darren Neimke, Eric Pascarello, Lucas Carlson, Radhakrishna M.V., Berndt Hamboeck, Kazi Manzur Rashid, Mark Mrachek, Curt Christianson, Mohammad Azam, Al Harding, Omar AL Zabir, Sonu Kapoor, Steve Marx, Dave Glover, and Abe Semaan.
Alessandro Gallo
This is my first book, and I’ve put my time, passion, and soul into writing it. Now that it’s done, I can say that writing a book is tough. This would have been impossible to accomplish without the help of the people who contributed to its conception and development.
Working with David and Rama has been an amazing experience. It was an absolute pleasure working with you guys! I’m also grateful to those who dedicated their time and energy to read and comment on the manuscript: David Anson, Ronald Buckton, Sonu Kapoor, Bertrand Le Roy, Steve Marx, and Joe Stagner.
A special thank-you to Luis Abreu for all the help and suggestions he provided during the many hours spent discussing ASP.NET AJAX, since the first CTP release of “Atlas.” Muito obrigado Luis!
And I can never say thank you enough to Valentina for her patience, enthusiasm, and love.
David Barkol
Writing this book has been a rewarding and challenging experience. Although it took more time that one could possibly justify, working with Alessandro and Rama has been an absolute pleasure. I’m truly proud of what we’ve produced together as a team and the friendship we’ve created in the process.
I would like to thank everybody at Neudesic for their technical expertise and support, especially Samir Patel, Jason Jung, Tim Marshall, Parsa Rohani, Anthony Ferry, and Ashish Agarwal. An extended thank-you goes out to Mickey Williams, Steve Saxon, and Phil Scott for influencing my career and providing me with invaluable advice and encouragement.
Thanks to our reviewers, who provided us with much-needed feedback and support that greatly influenced our book. I would like to particularly thank Irena Kennedy, Walter Myers, and Joe Stagner from Microsoft for their magnanimous contributions and assistance during the review process.
Most important, I would like to thank my wife Emily and two daughters Miranda and Madeline, for inspiring me to do my best every day. The sacrifices they made prove what a wonderful family I have and how lucky I am to have them.
Rama Krishna Vavilala
It has been an extreme pleasure to work with Alessandro and David. I consider myself very fortunate and blessed for all the support and understanding I received from them. Special thanks to our editor Michael Stephens for believing in all of us and in this project.
I would like to acknowledge the support my family has shown to me during the writing of the book. Thank you, Radhika, for all the hard work and understanding; and thanks, Shreya, for not troubling me too much while I was writing.
My friend Nishant Sivakumar, who had just been through the book-writing ordeal, was generous enough to share tips and tricks with me. Thanks, Nish!
Last but not least, I also thank the people who participate in the online forums www.asp.net and www.codeproject.com. I have learned a lot from them.