Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The animal featured on the cover of Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C is a white-tailed eagle. These large sea eagles have a very large range and are therefore highly adaptable. They are mostly found in coastal areas, but can also be found in the tundra and steppes, forests, and mountains. They build huge nests in trees, bushes, cliffs, or on the ground, depending on what their environment offers.

Eagles fall into the category of bird known as "raptors," a category that also includes falcons and hawks. Like other sea eagles, white-tailed eagles have toes adapted to grasping smooth prey such as fish. Their excellent vision enables all eagles to spot prey from the air or a high perch. They frequently hunt in pairs for their favorite meal of diving birds. Keeping a sharp eye on the bird as it dives, the white-tailed eagle grabs it as soon as it resurfaces. Fish is another staple of the white-tailed eagle's diet. In fact, their diet is as adaptable as everything else about these birds. They will frequently eat fish in summer and waterfowl and carrion in winter, when fish are less plentiful.

Eagles often eat their victims while still flying, breaking them apart and discarding the nonedible parts to lighten their load. Eagles, like most raptors, often dine on sick or wounded animals.

There are more than 50 species of eagle spread throughout the world, with the exception of New Zealand and Antarctica. A pair of eagles will use the same nest year after year, lining it with green leaves and grass, fur, turf, or other soft materials and adding to it each year. The largest eagle nest ever found was 20 feet deep and 10 feet across.

White-tailed eagles are highly regarded, even revered, by many native populations of Siberia and Scandinavian fishermen. However, in other areas overhunting has almost led to their extinction. Increased awareness and limits on hunting have helped this majestic bird rebuild its population, and it is now considered to be safe.

Melanie Wang was the production editor and copy editor for this book, and Sheryl Avruch was the production manager. Sarah Jane Shangraw, Nicole Arigo, and Mary Anne Weeks Mayo provided quality control reviews. Betty Hugh and Sebastian Banker provided production support. Robert Romano created the illustrations using Adobe Photoshop 4 and Macromedia FreeHand 7. Mike Sierra provided FrameMaker technical support. Seth Maislin wrote the index.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced by Kathleen Wilson with QuarkXPress 3.32 using the ITC Garamond font. The quick reference card was designed and produced by Kathleen Wilson.

The inside layout was designed by Alicia Cech and implemented in FrameMaker 5.5 by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.

The online edition of this book was created by the Safari production group (John Chodacki, Becki Maisch, and Madeleine Newell) using a set of Frame-to-XML conversion and cleanup tools written and maintained by Erik Ray, Benn Salter, John Chodacki, and Jeff Liggett.