I am the one who writes the text and works out nearly all the sample programs, but there are many other people who helped bring this book to print. My debt is portioned evenly between the technical people at Borland who found time to answer my questions, and the editors at Sams and Borland who helped format the text and search for errors.

A particular debt of gratitude is owed to the expert Borland programmers who took the time to talk theory with me. Getting a good technical answer to a specific question is one thing, but getting the benefit of someone's understanding of the significance and structure of a subject is even more important.

On the BCB side, I want to thank Bruneau Babet, Ellie and Jeff Peters, Roland Fernandez, Lar Mader, John Wiegley, Evan Scott, Matt Lawrence, Peter Sollich, Eli Boling, Dave Wilhelm, Conrad Herman, Taylor Hutt, Sergie Cardosa, John Thomas, and Pete Williams for their help. I want to extend a special thanks to Maurice Barnum for his tireless patience in answering some of the most difficult of my many technical questions.

On the VCL side, I would like to thank Danny Thorpe, Steve Trefethen, Steve Teixeira, Alain Tadros, Allen Bauer, Gary Whizin, Bill Weber, Mark Sikes, Lance Devin, David Intersimone, and Zack Urlocker for all their patience in answering my many questions and for their good work in support of the VCL.

I would like to extend a special thanks to Chuck Jazdzewski for finding time to answer questions and for the tremendous work he has done in making the VCL such a success. The VCL is the result of the output from many talented programmers, but if I were forced to single out the one person who made the biggest contribution, that would have to be Chuck.

Thanks to Kari Marcussen for her talent and help with the art in the DirectX examples. Thanks to John Thomas, Jeff Cottingham, and Stuart Fullmer for their help porting the DirectX components from Object Pascal to C++.

I would like to thank Tamara Meyer, Kurt Hecht, Yolanda Davis, CJ Martin, Ellen Lawson, and Nancy Collins for making my day-to-day life manageable. A special thanks goes to Karen Giles for her good heart and hard work.

As always, I want to thank the people at Sams who work so hard to make these books readable. Chris Denny is the sole of patience and even temper when he deals with me regularly on the phone. Thanks also to Mary Inderstrodt, Rich Alvey, and all the other Sams employees who worked so hard on this book. None of my books would be even half as readable were it not for the efforts of the editors and technicians at Sams who work on layout, structure, and grammar.

Thanks to readers from all around the world whose feedback inspires me to keep writing. Thanks also to everyone in the computer industry who stays in the game because of their love of the technology. In the short term, it appears that money, flash, and marketing are the forces that drive the industry. In the long run, however, the people who really shape the future of computers are the technicians and scientists who write code and dream dreams. I am in the debt of everyone who sits down to write code or who takes the time to discuss programming seriously in books, articles, and newsgroups. There is definitely a worldwide community of programmers who exist outside the boundaries of individual nations. This book is merely a small part of that community's continuous, ongoing dialog.

Charlie Calvert users.aol.com/charliecal Santa Cruz, CA March, 1997

About the Author

Charlie Calvert

Charlie Calvert is the author of Teach Yourself Windows 95 Programming in 21 Days, Delphi 2 Unleashed, and Turbo Pascal Programming 101. His day job is at Borland International, where he works as a manager in Developer Relations. In the past, he has also worked as a journalist and English teacher. He lives with his wife Margie in Santa Cruz, CA.

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