xx | Preface
Editors
Our development editor, Robyn Thomas, had to make sense out of a highly techni-
cal corpus of work in addition to guiding us through The King’s English to insure
what we said was what we meant. She also kept an array of technical editors sup-
plied with chapters, updated where all the pieces were (and where they should be),
and generally made the writing experience one of the nicest possible. Steve Weiss is
an incredibly supportive publisher—getting everything organized and on track. Steve
is also open to new perspectives and all things creative; most likely because he is so
creative himself.
Authors
Bill Sanders, PhD, and Chandima Cumaranatunge, PhD, are both professors in the
Multimedia Web Design and Development (MWD^2 ) program at the University of
Hartford. Bill teaches courses in Flash, ActionScript, Flash Media Server 2, PHP, C#,
SQL, CSS and XHTML among other Internet languages. He has published 44 com-
puter and computer-related books, written software ranging from Basic to Flash
Media Server ActionScript, and served as a consultant for different computer software
companies. Chandima teaches an introduction to the MWDD major, covering Flash
and some ActionScript, a gaming course using Flash and ActionScript, as well as
educational technology courses in the Education, Nursing, and Health Professions
College. Recently he received a grant to teach an experimental course in robotics.
Bill Sanders
Bill would like to thank his co-author Chandima for a great writing experience and
someone to really talk with about design patterns. Bill would also like to thank his
wife Delia for her forbearance while she completed her doctorate and our two offices
sang the song of two fully employed word processors. Our obsessive-compulsive
Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, WillDe, added a measure of reality to both of our
efforts. He always knew what was really important—going for a walk.
Chandima Cumaranatunge
Chandima considers himself very lucky, not only to have Bill as a writing partner,
but as a professional mentor and friend. He is also eternally grateful to his wife Resh-
maal for being totally supportive and putting up with his long writing stints away
from the family. Finally, Chandima’s daughter Sayuri, the two-year-old “little lily” in
“the ocean” (based on the meaning of her name in Japanese and Sinhalese) kept him
sane by reminding him every day about the important things in life.