Richard Mansfield - Programming

Richard Mansfield

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ISBN: 978-0-07-162472-5

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This book is dedicated to my friends David and Cliff, for their many kindnesses.

About the Author

Richard Mansfield has written hundreds of magazine articles and two columns. He began writing books full time in 1991. This his 41st book. Overall, his books have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into 12 languages. His recent titles include How to Do Everything with Second Life (McGraw-Hill), CSS Web Design For Dummies (Wiley), Office 2003 Application Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (Wiley), The Visual Basic .NET Power Toolkit (Sybex, with Evangelos Petroutsos), and The Savvy Guide to Digital Music (SAMS).

Todd Meister has been developing using Microsoft technologies for more than ten years. He has been a technical editor on more than 50 titles ranging from SQL Server to the .NET Framework. In addition to technical editing titles he is an Assistant Director for Computing Services at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He lives in central Indiana with his wife, Kimberly, and their four remarkable children.

John Paul Mueller has technically edited 63 books, written 82 books of his own, and written more than 300 articles for various publishers. He has more than 34 years of programming experience. When John isnt working at his computer, he enjoys making soap and working with wood, among other things.

I want to thank editorial director Roger Stewart for his thoughtful guidance during the entire process of creating this book. Roger understands authors and knows how to get the best out of them.

I was also lucky to have five editors work with me on this book. Roger helped shape the book in a variety of ways and always kept the big picture in mind.

Janet Walden made a number of improvements to the book, and was both judicious and gracious in her suggestions and modifications to the text.

A close technical edit by Todd Meister contributed to the books accuracy. Todd was indefatigable: He verified each code listing, even the short snippets of code. And he offered a variety of interesting suggestions about both themes and content.

My sometime co-author on other books, John Mueller, provided a valuable edit of this book. He also helped me ensure that the books audiencebeginnerswere well-served by improving the books clarity and technical accuracy.

Special thanks go to project manager Smita Rajan who was highly effective in all her jobs: shepherding, diplomacy, scheduling, and offering intelligent suggestions about style and many other issues as the book moved through the production stages. Her acumen and her grace were much appreciated.

Copy editor Lisa Theobald proved thoroughgoing and systematic. She paid particular attention to the passive voice, split infinitives, and ending sentences with a preposition. Overall, her efforts were as exhaustive as they were painstaking.

Production supervisor Jean Bodeaux offered good suggestions about improving elements of the book, and also provided valuable technical assistance.

Joya Anthony diligently coordinated the editorial submission processes. And she gave me some helpful guidance in other areas as well.

To these, and all the other good people at McGraw-Hill who contributed to the book, my thanks for the time and care they took to ensure quality at each station along the way from initiation to publication.

Finally, I want to give special thanks to my agent, Matt Wagner of Waterside Productions, who has been offering me good advice for many years.