Creating this book required the efforts of many people. I want to thank them for their help. Their contributions have made this a better book than I could have ever written alone.

First, I want to thank the students who took the Cocoa programming course at the Big Nerd Ranch. They helped me work the kinks out of the exercises and explanations that appear here. Their curiosity inspired me to make the book more comprehensive, and their patience made it possible.

By helping me teach and develop materials at the Ranch, Chris Campbell played a very important role in the revisions for the second edition. He made great additions and caught many of my most egregious errors. He also took all the screenshots.

Many people read the drafts of this edition and gave me corrections and suggestions. They include Mike Ferris, Kris Jensen at Stone Design, Bill Bumgarner, Brandon Kirby, Adam Fedor, and Don Briggs. Each reader added something to what is here.

I had the great honor of working for several years with Kai Christiansen. He taught me many things about Cocoa and about teaching. Together, we wrote several courses on OpenStep and WebObjects. For me, writing this book was a natural continuation of our work. Although my hands were on the keyboard, Kai's voice was frequently what came out on the page.

The great people at Addison-Wesley took my manuscript and made it into a book. They put the book on trucks and convinced bookstores to put it on the shelves. Without their help, it would still be just a stack of papers in my office.

The final thank-you goes to my family. Some of the attention that would normally be given to my wife, Michele, was diverted into the creation of this book. My son, Walden, was in the womb while I wrote the first edition. While I did the revisions for the second edition, he was at the bottom of the stairs yelling, “Daddy, come DOWN!” He also deserves thanks for his patience and understanding.