Acknowledgments

There are many people who have played a role in the creation of this book, and who deserve to have that role acknowledged. First and foremost is my wonderful wife, Cat. Writing a book of this length requires a fair bit of time. I could not have done it without her love and understanding. I also have to acknowledge my daughters, because if they were not such great children, there is no way I would have been able to do this.

Of course, one does not become a professor who writes his own teaching material in a vacuum. I have to thank my parents for raising me to appreciate learning and teaching. On the topic of teaching, I certainly had a great many teachers who influenced me as well. I am quite certain that my high school English teachers, who probably felt like they were pulling teeth to get me to write a five-page paper, never saw this coming.

Developing the Scala-based material for this book has taken about two years, and during that time I have taken full advantage of my students to help refine it. I truly appreciate these students who acted as guinea pigs along the way. In particular Kelsey Daniels who sent me over 140 typos from the first half of the book alone. I would also like to thank my mother-in-law for both advice and proofreading, as well as my wife’s friend, Jen Hogan, for assistance with promotion.

This book would not have ever gone to press had it not been for Peter DePasquale mentioning the book to Randi Cohen of Taylor and Francis and her support for getting this book in print.

Lastly, I would like to thank Martin Odersky and the other creators of Scala for providing what I consider to be a beautiful language that makes writing real programs a joy.