Professional Java.JDK.5.Edition (Wrox)

Acknowledgments

First, I’d like to thank my wife Jennifer Vitale and my son Andrew. They have been so supportive throughout my book-writing adventures, and without their encouragement I would not have found the time or energy to complete this task. I’d also like to thank my grandfather and grandmother Carlo and Annette Vitale, as well as my father Joseph Vitale, my stepmother Linda Vitale, and my fatherand mother-in-law James and Marlaine Moore. Many thanks also go to John Carver, Brandon Vient, and Aron Lee for their great supporting roles as friends. Finally, I’d like to thank all of my co-workers at McDonald Bradley, including Kyle Rice, Danny Proko, Joe Broussard, Rebecca Smith, Joe Cook, Ken Pratt, Adam Dean, Joon Lee, Adam Silver, John Johnson, Keith Bohnenberger, Bill Vitucci, Barry Edmond, Arnold Voketaitis, Steven Brockman, Peter Len, Ken Bartee, Dave Shuping, John Sutton, William Babilon, and many others who have been very supportive. And a special thanks goes to my coauthors for all of their hard work and encouragement. Thank you all!—JV

I would like to dedicate my contribution of this book to the memory of my father. My biggest fan—I know he would have put a copy of this book in the hand of everyone he knew. I appreciate the opportunities I have had as the result of the hard work and sacrifice of both of my parents.

I would like to thank my colleagues for helping me be part of this book. I would especially like to thank Clay and Donnie for their guidance. You make the very difficult seem easy.

This was my first participation in a technical book. I would like to thank my beautiful wife, Heather, for helping me stay the course. I could not have done it without you.

I would also like to thank Don Schaefer. It has been a privilege to work with you. You have taught me several lessons firsthand on leadership, professionalism, and conviction. I learned from you that the quality of a person’s ideas should be judged independent of their position in a company.

One of my early mentors was my high school computer science teacher, Mr. John Nadig. I remember specifically having some trouble with an assignment. Instead of just telling me the correct answer, he handed me a thick reference book and said with confidence, “I’m sure you will find the answer in here.” Thank you for getting me hooked on solving problems; I have been using that approach ever since.—SRS

I would like to thank my parents: my mother for teaching me how to write and showing me by her example how to work diligently and persistently through any problem and my father for introducing me to computer science and programming very early in my life. I would sit by his side and watch him program and through his patience learned quite a bit—sparking my interest for what would later become my career. I would like to thank the people I work with right now, and whom I have worked with in the past. I have learned a lot simply through watching and listening. There is no greater work atmosphere than the one where you are the least senior—there is something to be learned from everyone, each and every day of the week. I would like to thank my friends for understanding why I was always busy around book deadlines and for continuing to support me even as I became a hermit. Most of all I would like to thank God, as writing this book has been an exercise in faith and trust. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my ever-loving and supporting fiancée, without whose support I certainly would not have been able to complete my chapters. Thank you for planning our wedding and for being patient with me during my many hours of writing. I promise I will spend more time with the wedding planning!—MWM

I would like to thank the people who made this book possible: Dave Nelson for introducing me to the world of software development and for being my long-standing friend; Joe Vitale for his friendship and

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Acknowledgments

involving me with this book; and Eileen Bien Calabro for working with us as a developmental editor, helping to ensure that this book succeeds. I would also like to thank those who offer their support and belief in me—my parents, my family, Phil Bickel, Eric Anderton, John Tarcza, Joseph Kapp, Mark Orletsky, Gwynne Sayres, Keith Obenschain, Robert Burtt, Myke Weiskopf, Randy Nguyen, Randy Shine, James Kwon, David Hu, Sung Kwak, Tim Weber, Bobby Suh, Albert Young, Jacob Kim, and a few others I am sure I am forgetting who stand by me.—JS

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