Brian P. Hogan - Web Development Recipes

They say nobody writes a book alone. The truth is that even when you have five authors, you still end up bringing many other people with you for the ride. Without the support of these people, we wouldnt have this book or the experience we gained from writing it.

Susannah Pfalzer, our wonderful development editor, did an amazing job wrangling five authors and making sure we didnt skimp on the little things, like complete sentences, introductions, useful transitions, and coherent thoughts. We set out to write a book that would expose the modern web developer to a wide and eclectic collection of tools, but Susannah was always there to make sure we delivered the why as well as the how and the book is much better for it.

With the five of us scurrying to get things out the door quickly, mistakes and inconsistencies crept in, but thanks to our technical reviewers Charley Stran, Jessica Janiuk, Kevin Gisi, Matt Margolis, Eric Sorenson, Scott Andreas, Joel Andritsch, Lyle Johnson, Kim Shrier, Steve Heffernan, Noel Rappin, Sam Elliott, Derick Bailey, and Kaitlin Johnson, we are proud to have a book thats so much better than it was when we started.

Special thanks to Dave Gamache for his advice on Skeleton, to Trevor Burnham for his feedback on CoffeeScript, to Steve Sanderson for setting us on the right path with Knockout.JS, and to Benoit Chesneau for quickly fixing some issues with the Couchapp installer.

David Kelly made our book cover, and while some of us would have loved to have the version of the cover with bacon on it, were all very happy with the design you see instead.

Were all extremely grateful to Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt for giving us the opportunity to write for the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Their feedback helped immensely with a few of our more troubling recipes, but more importantly, they have created an atmosphere that puts the authors first. When you have that kind of support, everything else is so much easier.

Additionally, we want to thank our other business associates including Erich Tesky, Austen Ott, Emma Smith, Jeff Holland, and Nick LaMuro for their support and feedback throughout the process.

This is my third book for the Pragmatic Bookshelf, and while I only wrote a fifth of it, it was still the most challenging. My coauthors each stepped up in their own way at just the right time to make it happen, and Im proud to share this book with them. Chris, CJ, Mike, and Aaron each brought amazing ideas and examples into this book, and Im proud of what we have. Thanks, guys!

But even with the extra help this time, I still couldnt have done this without my wonderful wife, Carissa. Thank you for making sure I had the time to get this done. Thank you for taking care of the little things (and sometimes the big things that Id forget).

I cant thank my awesome wife, Kaitlin, enough for her support and understanding during many late nights and early mornings of writing and editing. You made some rough days infinitely more bearable.

Thanks to my coauthors for sharing in this experience. Ive known these guys for a long time, and it was great to tackle writing a book for the first time with friends. Thanks especially to Brian, who has played a huge role in my professional development over the years, for getting me involved in this undertaking.

Finally, thanks to my parents for their encouragement and support when I was growing up, in both writing and programming. I havent told you Ive written this, and Im excited to place a copy in your hands and show you what Ive done.

Id like to thank Brian Hogan for being my mentor over the years and for getting me started as a web developer and now published author. Without him, I wouldnt be doing any of this.

Id also like the thank my other coauthors Chris, CJ, and Aaron for going through this journey with me and helping me along the way.

I also want to thank my family for keeping me on task by constantly asking Hows the book coming along?

And finally Id like to thank my wife, Kaley, for putting up with my late nights away from her so we could finish the book.

To my wife, Laura, thank you for supporting me every step of this journey. You gave up spending time with me so I could work on writing, drove on trips so I could work, and gave up many summer activities so I could write.

To my parents, thank you for teaching me to work for things I want and to never give up. Dad, thanks for waiting on your startup so I could finish the book.

Thanks to Brian, Chris, Mike, and Aaron for collaborating on this; you have made me a better writer with your constant feedback and support. You guys kept me going when sections got tough, and I really appreciated that.