About the Authors

About the Authors

Kevin Hoffman started programming on a Commodore VIC-20 donated by his grandfather. Ever since then, he has been hopelessly addicted to programming. Instead of spending time outside, absorbing rays from that big yellow thing (he's not even sure what it's called), he spent most of his time as a kid and up through high school and college learning as many programming languages as he could get his hands on. At one time or another, he has written applications in ADA, Assembly, Scheme, LISP, Perl, Java, Python, Tcl/Tk, C, C#, Visual Basic .NET, C++, Pascal, Delphi, Visual Basic, VAX/VMS Pascal, BASIC, dozens of proprietary scripting languages, PL/SQL, and probably a few more that he couldn't remember. He's even written a few programs for OS/2 and Mac OS X.

He started out working for a company that produces scientific instruments. He wrote code that interfaced PCs with data logging and gathering tools as well as real-time data analysis programs. From there he moved on to working technical support for Unix systems, PCs, SQL databases, and client/server applications. After that he made the infamous jump to a dot-com, where he wrote an extensive amount of Visual Basic, VBScript, and ASP code. After an additional job working with another n - tier , COM-based ASP application, he moved to Houston, where he now endures the heat with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Lonny Kruger has more than 18 years of experience in developing C/C++, C#, Pascal, Delphi, Java, JavaScript, and Prolog programs, specializing in real-time applications and user interface design. Mr. Kruger has served as Systems Engineering Manager, Development Manager, Senior Architect, Project Manager, Principal Investigator, and Senior Programmer for many projects including NASA's Next Grade Project, a tool for the rapid assembly and analysis of satellites , and was responsible for the development of hurricane tracking and prediction software using the CIA's world database. In addition to his programming experience, Mr. Kruger served six years in the United States Marine Corps, including a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the first Gulf War.