When Bob Eckstein suggested the idea of writing a book in the Nutshell series to cover the web service APIs in the Java Web Services Developer's Pack, I must admit to not having been immediately inspired by the idea. My feelings changed, however, when I saw the number of sessions devoted to this subject at the 2002 JavaOne conference in San Francisco, most of which were extremely well attended. Soon after the conference, I agreed to write the book you are now holding in your hands. My thanks for providing me with the opportunity to do so go to Bob as well as to Mike Loukides, who also had a hand in the process of persuasion that ultimately lead to me making the right decision.
When Bob moved on to other things in O'Reilly, the editorial job was taken over by Brett McLaughlin, a man known to write books at a speed that mere mortals such as I can only simultaneously disbelieve and envy. Brett had the unenviable task of making sense of the first draft of this manuscript, which was in the process of being hastily overhauled following the release of the beta version of the J2EE 1.4 reference implementation. I am extremely grateful to Brett for his comments on the technical content of the book and for working so hard to edit and push the book through its production process in time for a fixed release date that we all wanted to meet. Thanks also to Kyle Hart for the part she played in making sure the book met this very important deadline.
The production team at O'Reilly have turned some very ordinary-looking text and diagrams into a real book under considerable time pressure. My thanks go to Mary Brady as production editor and to the rest of the team, whose names you will find in the Colophon at the end of this book, for a job well done. Thanks also to David Flanagan for his help with the preparation of the API reference material and for his general advice on the content of this part of the book.
Java Web Services in a Nutshell has taken the best part of a year to produce. For various reasons, this has been one of the most difficult years of my professional career. I am grateful, as ever, for the support of my family, Berys, Andrew, and Katie, who have made the last year more bearable than it otherwise would have been. Without your support, I would not have been able to finish this book at all.
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