First, I’d like to thank everyone at No Starch Press for giving me the opportunity to write this book. Jennifer Griffith-Delgado guided me through the process of writing this book. As a first-time author, I found her corrections and suggestions invaluable. Serena Yang managed the production of the book and kept everything moving forward even as I dragged my feet at times.

Xavier Noria did an outstanding job as the technical reviewer. Not only did he make sure the code samples were correct and followed best practices, he also pointed out several places where my explanations could be better. If there are any mistakes left in this book, I’m sure it’s only because I didn’t correct them when he pointed them out.

I am grateful to Tim Taylor for introducing me to programming by teaching me BASIC on a Commodore 64 in the 7th grade. We’ve come a long way since then. I’d also like to thank a few more of my friends from the Paris Independent School District who convinced me that I could teach even though I’m not really a teacher: Karol Ackley, Paula Alsup, Denise Kornegay, Dee Martin, and Frances Reed.

Thanks to everyone in the amazing Austin technology community. Special thanks to Austin on Rails and its founder Damon Clinkscales. Thank you to everyone who attended one of my Rails classes or conference sessions. This book grew out of the curriculum I developed for those classes. Your questions and comments helped clarify the material in this book.

Finally, my most heartfelt thanks to my family: my wife, Paige, and our sons, Matthew and Wyatt. The book is finally done; let’s go play!