Python & XML

Acknowledgments

While it is impossible to individually acknowledge everyone that had a hand in getting this book from an idea to the printed work you now hold in your hand, we would like to recognize and thank a few of these special people.

We are both very grateful for the support of our families, without which this would not have even gotten started. Chris would like to thank his family (Barb, Miles, and Katherine); without their support he would never get any writing completed, ever. Fred owes a great deal of gratitude to his wife (Cathy), who spent many a lonely evening wondering if he’d remember to come to bed. His children (William, Christopher, and Erin) made sure he didn’t forget why he spends so much time on all this. Those late-night trips to the coffee shop with Erin will never be forgotten!

We’d especially like to thank Guido van Rossum and Fred’s compatriots at PythonLabs (Tim Peters, Jeremy Hylton, and Barry Warsaw) for making sure Python could grow to be such a wonderful tool for building applications, and for leading the incredible community efforts which have gone into both Python itself and the excellent selection of additional packages of Python code.

Python’s development has been beleaguered by regular employment changes, but we all owe a debt of gratitude to the employers of the contributors and the PythonLabs team. Now at Zope Corporation (formerly Digital Creations), PythonLabs has finally found a home that offers both a rich environment for Python and comfortable place to settle down. Previous employers of Python’s lead developers, including the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) and Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, deserve credit for allowing Python to germinate and blossom.

Our reviewers’ efforts were invaluable and made this book what it is today. (They were helpful, and showed great faith in our ability to pull this off, even when we weren’t so sure.) Martin von Löwis, Paul Prescod, Simon St.Laurent, Greg Wilson, and Frank Willison all contributed generously of their time and helped to ensure that our mistakes were noticed. The feedback they provided, both from a development and from a technical support perspective, was invaluable. Any mistakes in the finished book are our own. Fred Drake, who began working on this project as a technical reviewer, must still answer for any mistakes he’s introduced!

Many people at O’Reilly played an important part in the development of this book, and without the help of their editorial staff, this book would seem rambling and incoherent (well, more so at least!). Laura Lewin deserves special recognition. Without her editorial skill and faith in our ability to present the important aspects of our subject, you wouldn’t be reading this; her penchant for reminding us of the big picture when we became mired in the particulars of topics kept us on track and focused. Frank Willison deserves a great deal of credit not only for bringing Laura to O’Reilly, but in shepherding O’Reilly’s efforts to bring together their line of books on Python; we’ll all miss him. Finally, we’d like to thank the production staff at O’Reilly for their hard work in getting the book to print.