Gratitude may seem like a cliché, but this is only because it’s such a fundamental part of human nature. While we were writing the book, many people gave us good reasons to be grateful, and we would like to thank them all.

First of all, writing a book in our spare time has given us a new understanding of just how taxing such a project is on marriage and family life. Mark’s wife Cecilie stayed with him and actively supported him during the whole process. Most significantly, she understood just how important this project was to him. They’re still together, and Mark looks forward to being able to spend more time with her and their kids Linea and Jarl. Steven’s wife Judith gave him the space needed to complete this immense undertaking, but she certainly is glad that the project is finally finished.

On a more professional level, we want to thank Manning for giving us this opportunity. Michael Stephens initiated the project. Dan Maharry, Marina Michaels, and Christina Taylor served as our development editors and kept a keen eye on the quality of the text. They helped us identify weak spots in the manuscript and provided extensive constructive criticism.

Karsten Strøbæk served as our technical development editor, read through numerous early drafts, and provided much helpful feedback. Karsten was there when Mark wrote the first edition and served as the technical proofreader during production at that time. In this edition, technical proofreading was done by Chris Heneghan, who caught many subtle bugs and inconsistencies throughout the manuscript.

After we were done writing the manuscript, we entered the production process. This was managed by Anthony Calcara. During that process, Frances Buran was our copyeditor, while Nichole Beard held a close watch on the book’s graphics and diagrams.

The following reviewers read the manuscript at various stages of development, and we’re grateful for their comments and insight: Ajay Bhosale, Björn Nordblom, Cemre Mengu, Dennis Sellinger, Emanuele Origgi, Ernesto Cardenas Cangahuala, Gustavo Gomes, Igor Kochetov, Jeremy Caney, Justin Coulston, Mikkel Arentoft, Pasquale Zirpoli, Robert Morrison, Sergio Romero, Shawn Lam, and Stephen Byrne. Reviewing was made possible by Ivan Martinovic, the book’s review editor.

Many of the participants in the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP) also provided feedback and asked difficult questions that exposed the weak parts of the text.

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Caney, who started out as a MEAP participant but was promoted to reviewer. He supplied us with an immense amount of feedback, both linguistic and contextual. His deep understanding of DI and software design was invaluable.

Also special thanks to Ric Slappendel. Ric advised us on how to compose UWP applications using DI. His knowledge about WPF, UWP, and XAML saved us countless hours and sleepless nights, and completely shaped section 7.2 and its companion code examples. Without Ric’s help, we likely would’ve ended up with a book that didn’t discuss UWP at all.

Alex Meyer-Gleaves and Travis Illig reviewed early versions of chapter 13 and provided us with feedback on using the new Autofac configuration and Decorator support. We’re grateful for their participation.

And finally, Mogens Heller Grabe courteously allowed us to use his picture of a hair dryer wired directly into a wall outlet.