Acknowledgments

I was expecting that writing the second edition of this book would be relatively straightforward — a little tweak here and a bit extra there — but no, the reality was that it was again one of the most time-demanding exercises I've undertaken in recent years. I must thank my partner, Cynthia, who consistently encouraged me to "get it done," so that we can once again have a life.

I would especially like to thank everyone at Wrox who has helped me re-learn the art of technical writing — in particular, Bill Bridges, whose attention to detail has resulted in consistency throughout the book despite there being five authors contributing to the process, and Katie Mohr (whose ability to get us back on track was a life-saver), who made the whole process possible.

I have to pass on a big thank you to my co-author, David Gardner, who agreed to work with me on the second edition of this book. I doubt that I really gave an accurate representation of exactly how much work would be involved, and I really appreciated having someone of such high caliber to bounce ideas off of and share the workload. As we approached the mid-point of this book, I really appreciated a number of guest authors stepping in to help ensure we were able to meet the deadline. So a big thanks to Keyvan Nayyeri, Miguel Madero, and Joel Pobar for their respective contributions.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of my fellow Australian MVP developers and the Microsoft staff (Dave Glover and Andrew Coates particularly), who were always able to answer any questions along the way.

—Nick Randolph

This book represents one of the most rewarding and challenging activities I've ever undertaken. Writing while maintaining a full-time job is certainly not for the fainthearted. However, in the process I have amassed a wealth of knowledge that I never would have found the time to learn otherwise.

The process of writing a book is very different from writing code, and I am especially thankful to the team at Wrox for helping guide me to the finish line. Without Katie Mohr and Bill Bridges working as hard as they did to cajole the next chapter out of us, we never would have gotten this finished. Katie put her trust in me as a first-time author, and fully supported our decisions regarding the content and structure of the book. Bill improved the clarity and quality of my writing and corrected my repeated grammatical transgressions and Aussie colloquialisms. It was a pleasure to be in such experienced hands, and I thank them both for their patience and professionalism.

A huge thank you goes to my co-author Nick Randolph, who invited me to join him in writing this book, and managed to get us organized early on when I had very little idea what I was doing. I enjoyed collaborating on such a big project and the ongoing conversations about the latest cool feature that we'd just discovered.

Much appreciation and thanks go to our guest authors, Keyvan Nayyeri, Miguel Madero, and Joel Pobar, whose excellent contributions to this book have improved it significantly. Also thanks to my fellow coffee drinkers and .NET developers, Mitch Wheat, Michael Minutillo, and Ola Karlsson, for their feedback and suggestions on how to improve various chapters.

Most of all I would like to thank my beautiful and supportive wife, Julie. She certainly didn't know what she was getting herself into when I agreed to write this book, but had she known I've no doubt that she would still have been just as encouraging and supportive. Julie did more than her fair share for our family when I needed to drop almost everything else, and I am truly grateful for her love and friendship.

Finally, thanks to my daughters Jasmin and Emily, who gave up countless cuddles and tickles so that Daddy could find the time to write this book. I promise I'll do my best to catch up on the tickles that I owe you, and pay them back with interest.

—David Gardner