Acknowledgments¹

¹ Many at my publishing house thought that my acknowledgments section, as well as other parts of this book, were a bit risqué, so the original has been edited down to what you see here. I apologize if you are offended by anything I wrote, that was never my intention. Apparently, I’ve been told, my sense of humor is not appreciated by all. If you do like bad fart jokes, then please follow me on Twitter @markbates.

I said it in my first book, and I’ll say it again here: Writing a book is incredibly hard work! Please make sure no one ever tells you differently. If they do, they are either an incredible liar or Stephen King. Fortunately for me I fall somewhere in the middle.

Writing a book is simultaneously a very independent and solitary activity, as well as a team effort. After I put the kids to bed, I head down to my office, crack open a few Guinesses (is the plural Guinei?), crank up the tunes, and work, by myself, into the wee hours of the morning. When I finish a chapter, I send it off to my editor, who then sends it off to a bunch of people who take what I have written and improve it in ways that I didn’t know possible. Whether it’s as simple as correcting grammar or spelling mistakes, to something more complex such as helping to improve the flow of the book, or point out where example code could be improved to further clarify a point. So, while the writing may be done alone in a dark room by yours truly, the final product is the culmination of many people’s hard work.

In this section of the book, I get the chance to say thank you to those who help shape, define, and otherwise ensure that the book you are currently holding (or downloading) is of the highest quality it can be. So without further adieu I’m going to thank people Academy Awards style, knowing that I’m sure I’ve left someone off the list, for which I am incredibly sorry.

First and foremost I have to thank my beautiful wife, Rachel. Rachel is one of the most supportive and strong people I have ever met. Each night I get to crawl into bed beside her and each morning I get the joy of waking up next to her. I have the pleasure of staring into her eyes and seeing unconditional love there. I also get the encouragement to write books, start my own business, and to do whatever it is that will make me happiest in life. She gave me two handsome sons and in return I’ve given her bad jokes and my used cell phones. I clearly got the better end of the bargain in this marriage, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Next, I would like to thank my sons, Dylan and Leo. While neither of them directly contributed to this book, they do make life worth living and they give my life an energy and excitement that only children can. I love you boys both so very much.

Before moving off the subject of my family, I would like to thank my parents (especially you Mom!) and the rest of my family for always being there to both simultaneously support me and cut me down to size. I love you all.

Next I have to thank Debra Williams Cauley. Debra was my editor, handler, and psychiatrist on my first book, Distributed Programming with Ruby. I can only hope that other authors have the fortune to work with an editor as good as Debra. She truly has the patience of a saint. I hope that should I ever write another book, Debra will be right there with me. I can’t imagine writing a book without her. Thank you, Debra.

When writing a technical book, there are people that are very important to the process; they are the technical reviewers. A technical reviewer’s job is to read each chapter and critique it from a technical standpoint, as well as answer the question, “Does it make sense to learn this here?” These reviewers are there to act as your audience. They are technically minded and know their subject. Therefore, the feedback that you get from them is incredibly important. On this book there have a been a few technical reviewers. But the two I really want to call out are Stuart Garner and Dan Pickett. Stuart and Dan went way above the call of duty on this book and were by no means afraid of telling me when I did or said something boneheaded. They received frantic phone calls and emails from me at all hours of the day and night and responded with amazing feedback. If I didn’t want all those sweet royalty checks all to myself I might’ve been tempted to cut them in. (Don’t worry, they got paid for their work. They each received a coupon for one free hour of “Mark” time.) Thank you Dan and Stuart, and the rest of the technical reviewers, for all of your hard work.

There are people who contribute to a book like this in different ways. Someone has to design the cover, index the book, write the language (CoffeeScript), or do any of the other countless jobs involved in something like this. Here is a list of some of those people (that I know about), in no particular order: Jeremey Ashkenas, Trevor Burnham, Dan Fishman, Chris Zahn, Gregg Pollack, Gary Adair, Sandra Schroeder, Obie Fernandez, Kristy Hart, Andy Beaster, Barbara Hacha, Tim Wright, Debbie Williams, Brian France, Vanessa Evans, Dan Scherf, Gary Adair, Nonie Ratcliff, and Kim Boedigheimer.

I would also like to thank everyone I have seen since I first starting writing this book who have heard me blather on for hours about it. I know it’s not that interesting to most people, but damn, do I love to hear the sound of my voice. Thank you all for not punching me in the mouth, like I probably deserve.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to you, the reader. Thank you for purchasing this book and helping to support people such as myself who, at the end of the day, really just want to help out our fellow developers by sharing the knowledge we have with the rest of the world. It’s for you that I have put the countless hours of work and toil into this book. I hope that by the time you close the cover, you will have gained a better understanding of CoffeeScript and how it can impact your development. Good luck.