I would like to offer my sincere thanks to Tatiana Apandi, my editor at O’Reilly, for all her help in guiding this novice author through the process of creating this book.
Allison Randal helped in the editing process, with Matt Messier, Tom Cross, and Simon Biles providing technical review. Their efforts were of great help to me in refining the manuscript.
Writing the book has made me appreciate the amount of work that goes on once the manuscript is complete. I want to thank the production team at O’Reilly for all their work on this project. I also want to thank the people that have played an unseen role in creating the volume that you hold in your hands. None of this would happen without the accountants, managers, printing press operators, and fork lift drivers.
I came to computing by way of molecular biology. Over the years, I have had the privilege to work with, and learn from, some superb programmers and sysadmins. I owe them all a debt of gratitude, especially the crews at Thinking Machines and Darwin Molecular.
Very special thanks are due to my darling Nancy, my wife, for all her encouragement over the past few months. Writing can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Her understanding and support were essential in making this book happen.