Acknowledgments

For me, this book is the culmination of more than five years of debate, argument, and discussion about XML with numerous people. Some of this took place in the hallways at conferences such as Software Development and XMLOne. Some of it took place on mailing lists like xml-dev. Along the way a few names kept popping up. Sometimes I agreed with what those folks said, sometimes I didn'tbut their conversations and thoughts were always illuminating and helped clarify my own thinking about XML. These gurus include Tim Berners-Lee, Tim Bray, Claude Len Bullard, Mike Champion, James Clark, John Cowan, Roy Fielding, Rick Jelliffe, Michael Kay, Murata Makoto, Uche Ogbuji, Walter Perry, Paul Prescod, Jonathan Robie, and Simon St. Laurent. I doubt any of them agree with everything I've written here. In fact, I suspect a couple of them may violently disagree with most of it. However, as I look at this book, I see their influences everywhere. If they hadn't written what they've written, I couldn't have written this book.

Many people helped out in more direct ways with comments, corrections, and suggestions. Alex Blewitt, Janek Bogucki, Lars Gregori, Gareth Jenkins, Alexander Rankine, Clint Shank, and Wayne Tanner submitted numerous helpful corrections for the draft of the manuscript I posted at my web site. Mike Blackstone deserves special thanks for his copious notes. Mike Champion, Martin Gudgin, Sean McGrath, and Tim Bray did yeomanlike service as technical reviewers. Scott Meyers both founded the series and helped me keep the focus squarely on track. Their comments all substantially improved the book. As always, the folks at the Studio B literary agency were extremely helpful at all steps of the process. David Rogelberg, Sherry Rogelberg, and Stacey Barone should be called out for particular commendation. On the publisher's side at Addison-Wesley, Mary T. O'Brien shepherded this book from contract to completion. Chrysta Meadowbrooke performed the single most pleasant copy edit I've ever experienced . I would also like to thank the people who worked on the production of the book, Patrick Cash-Peterson for coordinating this book through production, Stratford Publishing Services for layout and design, Sharon Hilgenberg for the index, and Diane Freed for proofing.

Finally, as always, my biggest thanks are due to my wife, Beth, without whose love and understanding this book could never have been completed.