VB Shell Programming

Acknowledgments

When I approached my favorite publishers with the idea for the book, I only included O’Reilly because I thought a rejection email from them would look really great. I had plans to frame it and everything. The fact that I have written a book for the supreme deities of computer publishing still has me in awe. I mean, I have a book with an animal on the cover and everything. All I can do is say “Wow.” So first and foremost, I would like to thank Tim O’Reilly for having the faith in me to write this book. I thought it would be a great book; he did too. They call that synergy! But ideas aside, none of this could have happened without the greatest editor in the known Universe. Of course, you all know who it is, but I’ll mention his name anyway—Ron Petrusha. For those of you who don’t know, editors are the ones who actually know how to write books and spend an awful amount of time trying to teach people like me to do the same. Ron, thank you for convincing me to write this book. I couldn’t have done it without you. I think I have mastered the semicolon. Next comes the apostrophe.

I must acknowledge all my friends and family who gave me much support during the course of writing this book. But I would like to give special thanks to Kathy Duval (that’s my mom!), Glen Duval, Kara Duval, Chris Mercier (Big Chris), Bill Purvis (The Purvis), and Courtney Lomelo (She Who Must Not Be Named) for being my teachers during this time.

I owe many thanks to my proofreader and technical advisor, ...