THE AUTHOR IS ONLY ONE MEMBER of the large team of people necessary to get a book into print. I'd like to thank the John Wiley & Sons and Wrox Press editorial and production teams for their help and support throughout.

I would particularly like to thank my technical editor, Marc Gregoire, for doing such an outstanding job of reviewing the text and checking out all the code fragments and examples in the book. His many constructive comments and suggestions for better ways of presenting the material has undoubtedly made the book a much better tutorial.

As always, the love and support of my wife, Eve, has been fundamental to making it possible for me to write this book alongside my other activities. She provides for my every need and remains patient and cheerful in spite of the effect that my self-imposed workload has on family life.