About the Authors
Sarah Guthals received her PhD from UCSD in computer science specializing in CS Education in 2014. During graduate school, she built the beta version of CodeSpells, a 3D immersive video game designed to teach children to code through playing a wizard and writing spells. Sarah went on to cofound ThoughtSTEM, a company that builds software (for example, LearnToMod), curriculum, and pedagogies for teaching children to code and empowering K–12 teachers to teach their students.
Sarah has written four books around Minecraft, one on mobile app development, one on making digital games, and one on helping adults teach kids coding; launched a Coursera and EdX course for teachers interested in teaching coding; was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 in Science and UCSD’s 40 under 40 Alumni; and founded We Can — a company dedicated to encouraging all kids to do anything.
Sarah has been a lecturer at UCSD for the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Educational Studies and was an engineering manager at GitHub. She is currently a senior program manager at Microsoft, focused on education.
Sarah’s passion is making coding accessible to everyone, with the goal of making it a basic literacy.
Phil Haack is the founder and CEO of Haacked LLC where he coaches software organizations and helps them become the best versions of themselves.
To do this, Phil draws upon his seven years of experience at GitHub where he was a director of engineering and helped make GitHub friendly to developers on the Microsoft platform. He also draws upon his experience at Microsoft where he was a senior program manager responsible for shipping ASP.NET MVC and NuGet, among other projects. These products had permissive open source licenses and ushered in Microsoft’s Open Source era.
Phil is a coauthor of the popular Professional ASP.NET MVC series and regularly speaks at conferences around the world. He’s also made several appearances on technology podcasts, such as .NET Rocks, Hanselminutes, Herding Code, and The Official jQuery Podcast.
Dedications
Sarah: I would like to dedicate this book to my close friends and family members who have supported me, not only in writing this book, but in becoming who I am today. I’d like to specifically dedicate this book to my husband Adrian who has always helped me see that, with passion and dedication, I can really do anything I want. And finally to my daughter Ayla who gives me the drive to keep pushing forward!
Phil: I dedicate this book to my wife Akumi and my kids Cody and Mia who supported me immensely as I wrote this book at the same time that I was recovering from knee surgery. They fetched me many a snack and drink so I could keep writing. I also dedicate this book to the folks at GitHub past and present who changed the world of software development. Remember, the H is capitalized.
Authors’ Acknowledgments
Sarah: I would like to acknowledge all of the hard work that went into making GitHub, all of the open source developers who share their passions on GitHub, all of the folks who build apps that integrate with GitHub, and every programming language, coding application, and effort to improve the collaborative nature of computer science —without these, coding would not be as inspiring and fun. I would also like to acknowledge Phil for c-authoring this book with me (his experience and wisdom is definitely a key feature) and Meaghan for her technical editing, making sure we don’t stray. Finally, I want to thank Steve, Kelly, and the folks at Wiley for making writing this book a great experience!
Phil: GitHub changed the world of software development for the better. It’s had an immense impact on how people write software today. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it. I want to acknowledge the founders of GitHub, the employees past and present, and the new stewards, Microsoft. I also want to acknowledge all the open source developers who were instrumental to GitHub’s success. I also want to acknowledge my coauthor, Sarah, who made this an enjoyable writing experience for me. Also, thanks to Meaghan for her sharp technical editing. Finally, thank you Steve, Kelly, and the fine folks at Wiley for making this book a reality!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Executive Editor: Steve Hayes
Project Editor: Kelly Ewing
Copy Editor: Kelly Ewing
Technical Editor: Meaghan Lewis
Editorial Assistant: Matthew Lowe
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Production Editor: G. Vasanth Koilraj
Cover Image: © skynesher/Getty Images; Screenshot: Courtesy of Sarah Guthals