Acknowledgments

I can say it now: Several times I was about to start an XML book project, but then for one reason or another the project never took off. So I’d like to start by saying thanks to the people who believed in a fairly confused book idea and worked to make it happen. These people are Anne Hamilton and Jeannine Gailey. (By the way, all the best, Jeannine!)

Lynn Finnel brought the usual fundamental contribution as project editor. As Lynn originally described her role in the first e-mail we exchanged, being an editor is a delicate art, as you have to reconcile the needs of many people while meeting your own deadlines. Thanks again, Lynn.

And a warm thanks goes to Jennifer Harris, who edited the book, and technical reviewers Marc Young, Jim Fuchs, Julie Xiao, and Jean Ross.

Other people were involved with this book, mostly as personal reviewers. Francesco Balena tested some of the code and provided a lot of insight. In particular, Giuseppe Dimauro and Giuseppe Guerrasio helped to figure out the intricacies of the XmlSerializer class, and Ralph Westphal did the same with custom readers. Kenn Scribner has been the ideal extension to the MSDN documentation about Web services. Rainer Heller of Siemens offered a really interesting perspective on Web services interoperability. It was nice to discuss Web services in the more general context of a conversation based on the World Football Championships—an indirect demonstration that Web services are still interoperable today!

Thanks to all the Wintellect guys, and Jason Clark and Jeffrey Richter, in particular, for their friendly and effective support.

And now my family. I’ve noticed that many authors, when writing acknowledgments, promise their families that they will never repeat the experience. Although rewarding for themselves, they explain, writing a book is too hard on the rest of the family to be repeated. I’ll be honest and sincere here. So, Silvia, and Francesco and Michela, set your mind at rest. I will do all I can to write even more books. But I love you all beyond imagination.

—’til the next book

Dino