Acknowledgments
Most publications, from mysteries to scientific papers to computer
books, claim that the work being published would not have been
possible without the collaboration of many others, typically
including local forensic scientists, colleagues, and children,
respectively. This book makes this claim to an extreme degree. Most
of the words, code, and ideas in this volume were contributed by
people not listed on the front cover. The original recipe authors,
readers who submitted useful and insightful comments to the cookbook
web site, and the authors of the chapter introductions, are the true
authors of the book, and they deserve the credit.
David Ascher
The software that runs the online cookbook was the product of Andy
McKay's constant and diligent effort. Andy was
ActiveState's key Zope developer during the online
data-collection phase of this project, and one of the key developers
behind ASPN (http://aspn.activestate.com),
ActiveState's content site, which serves a wide
variety of information for and by programmers of open source
languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, Tcl, and XSLT. Andy McKay used
to be a Perl developer, by the way. At about the same time that I
started at ActiveState, the company decided to use Zope to build what
would become ASPN. In the years that followed, Andy has become a Zope
master and somewhat of a Python fanatic (without any advocacy from
me!), and is currently a Zope and Plone author, consultant and
entrepreneur. Based on an original design that I put together with
Diane Mueller, also of ActiveState, Andy single-handedly implemented
ASPN in record time, then proceeded to adjust it to ever-changing
requirements for new features that we hadn't
anticipated in the early design phase, staying cheerful and
professional throughout. It's a pleasure to have him
as the author of the introduction to the chapter on web recipes.
Since Andy's departure, James McGill has taken over
as caretaker of the online cookbookhe makes sure that the
cookbook is live at all hours of the day or night, ready to serve
Pythonistas worldwide.
Paul Prescod, then also of ActiveState, was a kindred spirit
throughout the project, helping with the online editorial process,
suggesting changes, and encouraging readers of
comp.lang.python to visit the web site and
submit recipes. Paul also helped with some of his considerable XML
knowledge when it came to figuring out how to take the data out of
Zope and get it ready for the publication process.
The last activator I'd like to thank, for two
different reasons, is Dick Hardt, founder and CEO of ActiveState. The
first is that Dick agreed to let me work on the cookbook as part of
my job. Had he not, I wouldn't have been able to
participate in it. The second reason I'd like to
thank Dick is for suggesting at the outset that a share of the book
royalties go to the Python Software Foundation. This decision not
only made it easier to enlist Python users into becoming contributors
but has also resulted in some long-term revenue to an organization
that I believe needs and deserves financial support. All Python users
will benefit.
Writing a software system a second time is dangerous; the
"second-system" syndrome is a
well-known engineering scenario in which teams that are allowed to
rebuild systems "right" often end
up with interminable, over-engineered projects. I'm
pleased to say that this didn't happen in the case
of this second edition, for two primary reasons. The first was the
decision to trim the scope of the cookbook to cover only truly modern
Pythonthat made the content more manageable and the book much
more interesting to contemporary audiences. The second factor was
that everyone realized with hindsight that I would have no time to
contribute to the day-to-day editing of this second edition.
I'm as glad as ever to have been associated with
this book, and pleased that I have no guilt regarding the amount of
work I didn't contribute. When people like Alex and
Anna are willing to take on the work, it's much
better for everyone else to get out of the way.
Finally, I'd like to thank the
O'Reilly editors who have had a big hand in shaping
the cookbook. Laura Lewin was the original editor for the first
edition, and she helped make sure that the project moved along,
securing and coordinating the contributions of the introduction
authors. Paula Ferguson then took the baton, provided a huge amount
of precious feedback, and copyedited the final manuscript, ensuring
that the prose was as readable as possible given the multiplicity of
voices in the book. Jonathan Gennick was the editor for the second
edition, and as far as I can tell, he basically let Alex and Anna
drive, which was the right thing to do. Another editor I forgot to
mention last time was Tim O'Reilly, who got more
involved in this book than in most, in its early (rough) phases, and
provided very useful input.
Each time I review this acknowledgments section, I
can't help but remember
O'Reilly's Editor-in-Chief at the
inception of the project, Frank Willison. Frank died suddenly on a
black day, July 30, 2001. He was the person who most wanted to see
this book happen, for the simple reason that he believed the Python
community deserved it. Frank was always willing to explore new ideas,
and he was generous to a fault. The idea of a book with over a
hundred authors would have terrified most editors. Frank saw it as a
challenge and an experiment. I still miss Frank.
Alex Martelli
I first met Python thanks to the gentle insistence of a former
colleague, Alessandro Bottoni. He kept courteously repeating that I
really should give Python a try, in spite of my claims that I already
knew more pr |
