Acknowledgments
I owe a deep debt to Larry Wall. Whether he knew he was creating such a wonderful tool for accidental programmers like me, or whether that was just a happy side-effect of his creating a uniquely useful tool for people like himself, I will always be grateful to him for Perl.
Others in the Perl community who loom large in my personal list of heroes are Tom Christiansen, Mark-Jason Dominus, Tom Phoenix, Larry Rosler, and Nathan Torkington. I’d like to thank them on behalf of newbies everywhere. Even more than their prodigious knowledge of Perl, I’m in awe of the dedication they display in using their knowledge to help those just starting out.
At O’Reilly & Associates, I want to thank Tim O’Reilly, both for greenlighting this book, and for his vision in creating a series of books, conferences, and web sites that make learning about these technologies so much fun. I also would like to thank Richard Koman, Andy Oram, Paula Ferguson, and Linda Mui for their editorial assistance, and the following technical reviewers for their comments on the initial draft: Elaine Ashton, Scott Davenport, Joe Johnston, Nathan Patwardhan, Bill Peña, and Tom Phoenix.
I am very grateful to William Cobert and John Bethune at Canon Communications for giving me a chance to change careers. Among many others who helped me during that time, I want to single out Jennifer Field and Kate Leachman, graphic designers who joined me in making a breakneck transition to a new medium.
Among a long list of ...