Acknowledgments

Writing a book takes a lot of time and effort. After my first book, I swore I would never write again. But it is like having another baby. After a few years, you start thinking, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” And you fall into the trap again! So, this year my wife and I ended up having another baby, and I agreed (foolishly?) to write another book.

Jokes aside, writing a book has its rewards—there is no better way to master a subject than to teach it or, better yet, write about it. And when people use your book to learn, it brings you immense satisfaction. So, first and foremost, I would like to blame thank Alex Mackey for inviting me to co-author the book with him. Thanks, Alex.

I would also like to thank William Tulloch for helping me out with some parts of the book when I was falling behind. Thanks heaps, Bill.

Thanks is also due to the editorial and support team at Apress—Mathew Moodie, Ann Dickson, Anita Castro, Christine Ricketts, and everyone else involved in the project. Thanks for your patience in working through the repeated changes we made as Visual Studio and Windows 8 moved from pre-release versions to its final release.

A big thanks also goes out to Stephen Godbold for being the technical reviewer and meticulously checking every line of the book for technical correctness.

Last but not least, a really big thanks to my wife, Lakshmi, who put up with me while I spent a lot of time writing the book (in spite of having a newborn in the house), and my daughter Riya, who had to sacrifice some of her playtime so that I could write. She probably thinks I will be reading the book to her at bedtime—sorry, sweetie, it’s not that kind of book.

Mahesh Krishnan

When Alex Mackey asked me if I liked to write, I must admit I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for. This is my first shot at being involved in writing a book or part thereof, and through it took a little longer than anticipated it has been a great experience.

First I would like to thank Alex for giving me the opportunity to be involved in this project. Writing a book is not something I considered doing before so to both Alex and Mahesh, thanks!

As Mahesh has already done, thanks to the Apress editorial and support team for their ongoing support throughout the process and Stephen Godbold for his input on all things technical. I would also like to give a special shout out to Nicholas Blumhardt who, at the time the book was being written, was part of the team that developed MEF 2.0. One of the first chapters I wrote was on MEF and his feedback early in the piece went some way to convincing me that I might actually be able to pull this off.

Finally I would like to thank my wife Jacinta for her patience, support and understanding over the past eight months while I was ensconced the fortress of solitude working on this book.

William Tulloch