Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my parents for diligently taking care of the longest, toughest part of them all.

It should be stressed that this book, and much of my professional development, wouldn't have existed without Scott Meyers. Since we met at the C++ World Conference in 1998, Scott has constantly helped me do more and do better. Scott was the first person who enthusiastically encouraged me to develop my early ideas. He introduced me to John Vlissides, catalyzing another fruitful cooperation; lobbied Herb Sutter to accept me as a columnist for C++ Report; and introduced me to Addison-Wesley, practically forcing me into starting this book, at a time when I still had trouble understanding New York sales clerks. Ultimately, Scott helped me all the way through the book with reviews and advice, sharing with me all the pains of writing, and none of the benefits.

Many thanks to John Vlissides, who, with his sharp insights, convinced me of the problems with my solutions and suggested much better ones. Chapter 9 exists because John insisted that "things could be done better."

Thanks to P. J. Plauger and Marc Briand for encouraging me to write for the C/C++ Users Journal, at a time when I still believed that magazine columnists were inhabitants of another planet.

I am indebted to my editor, Debbie Lafferty, for her continuous support and sagacious advice.

My colleagues at RealNetworks, especially Boris Jerkunica and Jim Knaack, helped me very much by fostering an atmosphere of freedom, emulation, and excellence. I am grateful to them all for that.

I also owe much to all participants in the comp.lang.c++.moderated and comp.std.c++ Usenet newsgroups. These people greatly and generously contributed to my understanding of C++.

I would like to address thanks to the reviewers of early drafts of the manuscript: Mihail Antonescu, Bob Archer (my most thorough reviewer of all), Allen Broadman, Ionut Burete, Mirel Chirita, Steve Clamage, James O. Coplien, Doug Hazen, Kevlin Henney, John Hickin, Howard Hinnant, Sorin Jianu, Zoltan Kormos, James Kuyper, Lisa Lippincott, Jonathan H. Lundquist, Petru Marginean, Patrick McKillen, Florin Mihaila, Sorin Oprea, John Potter, Adrian Rapiteanu, Monica Rapiteanu, Brian Stanton, Adrian Steflea, Herb Sutter, John Torjo, Florin Trofin, and Cristi Vlasceanu. They all have invested significant efforts in reading and providing input, without which this book wouldn't have been half of what it is.

Thanks to Greg Comeau for providing me with his top-notch C++ compiler for free.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all my family and friends for their continuous encouragement and support.,