Acknowledgments

Most publications, from mysteries to scientific papers to computer books, claim that the work being published would not have been possible without the collaboration of many others, typically including local forensic scientists, colleagues, and children, respectively. This book makes this claim to an extreme degree. Most of the words, code, and ideas in this volume were contributed by people not listed on the front cover. The original recipe authors, readers who submitted useful and insightful comments to the cookbook web site, and the authors of the chapter introductions, are the true authors of the book, and they deserve the credit.

David Ascher

The software that runs the online cookbook was the product of Andy McKay's constant and diligent effort. Andy was ActiveState's key Zope developer during the online data-collection phase of this project, and one of the key developers behind ASPN (http://aspn.activestate.com), ActiveState's content site, which serves a wide variety of information for and by programmers of open source languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, Tcl, and XSLT. Andy McKay used to be a Perl developer, by the way. At about the same time that I started at ActiveState, the company decided to use Zope to build what would become ASPN. In the years that followed, Andy has become a Zope master and somewhat of a Python fanatic (without any advocacy from me!), and is currently a Zope and Plone author, consultant and entrepreneur. Based on an original design that I put together with Diane Mueller, also of ActiveState, Andy single-handedly implemented ASPN in record time, then proceeded to adjust it to ever-changing requirements for new features that we hadn't anticipated in the early design phase, staying cheerful and professional throughout. It's a pleasure to have him as the author of the introduction to the chapter on web recipes. Since Andy's departure, James McGill has taken over as caretaker of the online cookbookhe makes sure that the cookbook is live at all hours of the day or night, ready to serve Pythonistas worldwide.

Paul Prescod, then also of ActiveState, was a kindred spirit throughout the project, helping with the online editorial process, suggesting changes, and encouraging readers of comp.lang.python to visit the web site and submit recipes. Paul also helped with some of his considerable XML knowledge when it came to figuring out how to take the data out of Zope and get it ready for the publication process.

The last activator I'd like to thank, for two different reasons, is Dick Hardt, founder and CEO of ActiveState. The first is that Dick agreed to let me work on the cookbook as part of my job. Had he not, I wouldn't have been able to participate in it. The second reason I'd like to thank Dick is for suggesting at the outset that a share of the book royalties go to the Python Software Foundation. This decision not only made it easier to enlist Python users into becoming contributors but has also resulted in some long-term revenue to an organization that I believe needs and deserves financial support. All Python users will benefit.

Writing a software system a second time is dangerous; the "second-system" syndrome is a well-known engineering scenario in which teams that are allowed to rebuild systems "right" often end up with interminable, over-engineered projects. I'm pleased to say that this didn't happen in the case of this second edition, for two primary reasons. The first was the decision to trim the scope of the cookbook to cover only truly modern Pythonthat made the content more manageable and the book much more interesting to contemporary audiences. The second factor was that everyone realized with hindsight that I would have no time to contribute to the day-to-day editing of this second edition. I'm as glad as ever to have been associated with this book, and pleased that I have no guilt regarding the amount of work I didn't contribute. When people like Alex and Anna are willing to take on the work, it's much better for everyone else to get out of the way.

Finally, I'd like to thank the O'Reilly editors who have had a big hand in shaping the cookbook. Laura Lewin was the original editor for the first edition, and she helped make sure that the project moved along, securing and coordinating the contributions of the introduction authors. Paula Ferguson then took the baton, provided a huge amount of precious feedback, and copyedited the final manuscript, ensuring that the prose was as readable as possible given the multiplicity of voices in the book. Jonathan Gennick was the editor for the second edition, and as far as I can tell, he basically let Alex and Anna drive, which was the right thing to do. Another editor I forgot to mention last time was Tim O'Reilly, who got more involved in this book than in most, in its early (rough) phases, and provided very useful input.

Each time I review this acknowledgments section, I can't help but remember O'Reilly's Editor-in-Chief at the inception of the project, Frank Willison. Frank died suddenly on a black day, July 30, 2001. He was the person who most wanted to see this book happen, for the simple reason that he believed the Python community deserved it. Frank was always willing to explore new ideas, and he was generous to a fault. The idea of a book with over a hundred authors would have terrified most editors. Frank saw it as a challenge and an experiment. I still miss Frank.

Alex Martelli

I first met Python thanks to the gentle insistence of a former colleague, Alessandro Bottoni. He kept courteously repeating that I really should give Python a try, in spite of my claims that I already knew more programming languages than I knew what to do with. If I hadn't trusted his technical and aesthetic judgment enough to invest the needed time and energy on the basis of his suggestion, I most definitely wouldn't be writing and editing Python books today. Thanks for your well-placed stubbornness, Alessandro!

Of course, once I tasted Python, I was irretrievably hookedmy lifelong taste for very high-level (often mis-named "scripting") languages at last congealed into one superb synthesis. Here, at long last, was a language with the syntactic ease of Rexx (and then some), the semantic simplicity of Tcl (and then some), the intellectual rigor of Scheme (and other Lisp variants), and the awesome power of Perl (and then some). How could I resist? Still, I do owe a debt to Mike Cowlishaw (inventor of Rexx), who I had the pleasure of having as a colleague when I worked for IBM Research, for first getting me hooked on scripting. I must also thank John Ousterhout and Larry Wall, the inventors of Tcl and Perl, respectively, for later reinforcing my addiction through their brainchildren.

Greg Wilson first introduced me to O'Reilly, so he must get his share of thanks, tooand I'm overjoyed at having him as one of the introduction authors. I am also grateful to David Ascher, and several people at O'Reilly, for signing me up as co-editor of the first edition of this book and supporting so immediately and enthusiastically my idea that, hmmm, the time had sure come for a second edition (in dazed retrospect, I suspect what I meant was mostly that I had forgotten how deuced much work it had been to do the first one . . . and failed to realize that, with all the new materials heaped on ActiveState's site, as well as Python's wonderful progress over three years, the second edition would take more work than the first one. . . !).

I couldn't possibly have done the job without an impressive array of technology to help me. I don't know the names of all the people I should thank for the Internet, ADSL, and Google's search engines, which, together, let me look things up so easilyor for many of the other hardware and software technologies cooperating to amplify my productivity. But, I do know I couldn't have made it without Theo de Raadt's OpenBSD operating system, Steve Jobs' inspiration behind Mac OS X and the iBook G4 on which I did most of the work, Bram Moolenaar's VIM editor, and, of course, Guido van Rossum's Python language. So, I'll single out Theo, Steve, Bram, and Guido for special thanks!

Nor, as any book author will surely confirm, could I have done it without patience and moral support from friends and familychiefly my children Lucio and Flavia, my sister Elisabetta, my father Lanfranco. But the one person who was truly indispensable to this second edition was my wife and co-editor Anna. Having reconnected (after many years apart) thanks to Python, taken our honeymoon at the Open Source Convention, given a joint Lightning Talk about our "Pythonic Marriage," maybe I should have surmised how wonderful it would be to work so closely with her, day in and day out, on such a large and complex joint project. It was truly incredible, all the way through, fully including the heated debates about this or that technical or organizational point or exact choice of wording in delicate cases. Throughout the effort and the stress, her skill, her love, her joy, always shined through, sustained me, and constantly renewed my energies and my determination. Thanks, Anna!

Anna Martelli Ravenscroft

I discovered Python about two years ago. I fell in love, both with Python and (concurrently) with the martelli-bot. Python is a language that is near to my heart, primarily because it is so quickly usable. It doesn't require you to become a hermit for the next four years in order to do anything with the language. Thank you to Guido. And thanks to the amazing Python community for providing such a welcoming atmosphere to newcomers.

Working on this book was quite the learning experience for me. Besides all the Python code, I also learned both XML and VI, as well as reacquainting myself with Subversion. Thanks go to Holger Krekel and codespeak, for hosting our subversion repository while we travelled. Which brings us to a group of people who deserve special thanks: our reviewers. Holger Krekel, again, was exceptionally thorough, and ensured, among other things, that we had solid Unicode support. Raymond Hettinger gave us a huge amount of valuable, detailed insight throughout, particularly where iterators and generators were concerned. Both Raymond and Holger often offered alternatives to the presented "solutions" when warranted. Valentino Volonghi pointed out programming style issues as well as formatting issues and brought an incredible amount of enthusiasm to his reviews. Ryan Alexander, a newcomer to Python with a background in Java, provided extremely detailed recommendations on ordering and presenting materials (recipes and chapters), as well as pointing out explanations that were weak or missing altogether. His perspective was invaluable in making this book more accessible and useful to new Pythonistas. Several other individuals provided feedback on specific chapters or recipes, too numerous to list here. Your work, however, is greatly appreciated.

Of course, thanks go to my husband. I am amazed at Alex's patience with questions (and I questioned a lot). His dedication to excellence is a co-author's dream. When presented with feedback, he consistently responded with appreciation and focus on making the book better. He's one of the least ego-istical writers I've ever met.

Thank you to Dan, for encouraging my geekiness by starting me on Linux, teaching me proper terminology for the stuff I was doing, and for getting me hooked on the Internet. And finally, an extra special thanks to my children, Inanna and Graeme, for their hugs, understanding, and support when I was in geekmode, particularly during the final push to complete the book. You guys are the best kids a mother could wish for.