We’d like to thank Scott Guthrie for seeing the need in the .NET space for this framework. Without his prototype, vision, and leadership, this offering would still not exist in the .NET framework. We would also like to recognize the core ASP.NET MVC team at Microsoft, headed by Phil Haack, the Program Manager for ASP.NET MVC. Other key members of the ASP.NET MVC team are Eilon Lipton (Lead Dev), Levi Broderick (Dev), Jacques Eloff (Dev), Carl Dacosta (QA), and Federico Silva Armas (Lead QA). We would also like to extend our thanks to the large number of additional staff who worked on packaging, documenting and delivering the ASP.NET MVC framework as a supported offering from Microsoft. Even though this framework is small compared to others, this move from Microsoft is shifting the mental inertia of the .NET portion of the software industry.
This is true with any large publication, but this book employed three working authors, all consultants with multiple ongoing projects. The book effort took over a year and a half, starting with the first Community Technology Preview of the ASP.NET MVC Framework. This dynamic required tremendous support from the staff at Manning Publications. We would like to thank them for their patience and support throughout the project. In particular, we would like to thank acquisitions editor Michael Stephens and editor Tom Cirtin for their leadership. Michael saw the need for this book and contacted me about writing it. Tom was very supportive and patient and helped the three of us through our first book publication.
Our independent technical reviewers were outstanding. They offered advice and opinionated viewpoints on each chapter during development, and without that input, the book would not be as good as we hope it is. Our sincere thanks goes to Phil Haack for reviewing the manuscript and writing a brilliant foreword. Many thanks should also go to Freedom Dumlao, who painstakingly reviewed each chapter to ensure the message would apply in the best manner to the target audience. Jeremy Skinner was also a boon to the project. Jeremy tested and retested every code listing and code sample in the book as well as in the many Visual Studio projects that come with the book. His attention to detail, backed up by his vast experience with ASP.NET MVC and MvcContrib, has contributed greatly to this book.
Manning invited the following reviewers to read the manuscript at different stages of development and to send their comments: Mark Monster, Andrew Siemer, Benjamin Day, Frank Wang, Derek Jackson, Tim Binkley-Jones, Marc Gravell, Alessandro Gallo, Josh Heyer, Peter Johnson, Jeremy Anderson, and Alex Thissen. This book has also benefited from outside technical reviewers who volunteered to read parts of the manuscript and provided feedback: Rod Paddock, Craig Shoemaker, Hamilton Verissimo, Matt Hinze, Kevin Hurwitz, Blake Caraway, Nick Becker, Mahendra Mavani, Eric Anderson, Rafael Torres, Eric Hexter, Tom Jaeschke, Matt Hawley, and Sebastien Lambla.
Before this book went to print, a large number of people purchased the PDF edition of the book by participating in the MEAP, Manning’s Early Access Program. We would like to thank those readers for their comments and participation early, and throughout the manuscript portion of the project, especially Eric Kinateder, Ben Mills, Peter Kellner, Jeff P., Orlando Agostinho, Liam McLennan, Ronald Wildenberg, Max Fraser, Gudmundur.Hreidarsson, Kyle Szklenski, Philippe Vialatte, Lars Zeb, Marc Gravell, Cody Skidmore, Mark Fowler, Joey Beninghove, Shadi Mari, Simone Chiaretta, Jay Smith, Jeff Kwak, and Mohammad Azam.
I would like to thank my beautiful wife, Liana, for her support and patience throughout this project. Liana gave birth to our daughter, Gwyneth Rose, shortly before the book was started, and the motivation to spend more time with my growing family pushed me to complete the book. Thanks also to my parents, Peter and Rosemary Palermo, for instilling in me a love of books and learning from an early age.
My thanks and utmost appreciation go out to my amazing wife, Silvia. Her continued support and encouragement of my extracurricular work led to writing this book in the first place. I would also like to recognize one of my university mentors, Venkat Subramaniam. With his guidance, I found my passion in software development and strived to learn more and push the envelope. He was an inspiration in my career. Finally I’d like to thank my wonderful children, Andréa, Noah, and Ethan (and most recently Isaac and Isabella), who showed immense patience and encouragement while their dad was banging away at the keyboard in the late hours of the night.
Thanks to my wife, Sara, without whose love, support, and patience, my contribution to this project would not have been possible. Also, thanks to my family for putting up with a strange little bookworm all those years. Finally, thanks to my high school computer science teacher, Scotty Johnson, who showed me the rewards that a true passion for the craft can bring.
