I'd like to thank Michael O'Connell, the former Editor-in-Chief of JavaWorld, for giving me the opportunity to write about Java. I'd also like to thank Jill Steinberg, the current Editor-in-Chief, and the rest of the gang at JavaWorld for all their help with my original JavaWorld column, "Under the Hood."

Thanks to my agent, Laura Belt of Adler & Robin, who, after reading one of my JavaWorld columns back in 1996, e-mailed me inquiring whether I'd like to write a book and then phoned me within five minutes of my pressing the reply button.

As this second edition owes much to the first, I'd like to once again thank some people who helped me with the first edition. Thanks again to Judy Brief, my editor at McGraw-Hill for the first edition, who helped me reach the finish line the first time around. Thanks to Tim Lindholm and Jeff Rice, both of whom navigated through the manuscript of the first edition in search of technical bugs. Thanks also to the local reviewers of my first edition: Siew Chuah, Terrin Eager, Peter Eldredge, Steve Engle, Matt Gerrans, Mark Johnson, Barbara Laird, Steve Schmidt, and Anil Somani--all of whom read partial drafts of the manuscript. Your feedback and moral support were invaluable. Also, a special thanks goes to the Coffee Society of Cupertino, who cheerily welcomed my reviewers and me on many a Wednesday night, even though none of us were young and few of us pierced.

Thanks to everyone who submitted errata reports for the first edition, especially Antoine Trux, who found the majority of them.

Thanks to Kurt and Heidi Sohn, who let me invade their vacation home in Adrazhofen, Germany, where I completed the updates to chapters 8 and 14.

Finally, thanks to Simon Yates, my editor at McGraw-Hill, and Jennifer Perillo, managing editor, for all their assistance and patience as I worked to complete this project.