this book would not be possible without the support of many people first and foremosti' like to thank noah gift for jumping into the project and providing his amazing feedback on the fourth edition kurt grandis also provided useful comments for many ' also like to acknowledge past technical reviewers timothy boronczykpaul duboismats wichmanndavid ascherand tim bell for their valuable comments and advice that made earlier editions success guido van rossumjeremy hyltonfred drakeroger masseand barry warsaw also provided tremendous assistance with the first edition while hosting me for few weeks back in the hot summer of lastbut not leastthis book would not be possible without all of the feedback received from readers there are far too many people to list individuallybut have done my best to incorporate your suggestions for making the book even better ' also like to thank all the folks at addison-wesley and pearson education for their continued commitment to the project and assistance mark tabermichael thurstonseth kerneyand lisa thibault all helped out to get this edition out the door in good shape special thanks is in order for robin drakewhose tremendous effort in editing previous editions made the third edition possible finallyi' like to acknowledge my amazing wife and partner paula kamen for all of her encouragementdiabolical humorand love lib fl ff