Following close on the heels of The Inventor Mentor, this book demanded a marathoner's endurance from many people. The Inventor engineering team, led by Rikk Carey, continued to provide valuable support for me. Paul Strauss wrote all sample code for the nodes, actions, fields, and elements chapters and critiqued countless drafts. Paul was the touchstone for the entire book: if a paragraph or a chapter didn't satisfy him, I knew it wasn't finished. Gavin Bell also served as a resource for the database chapters and carefully reviewed work in progress.

Discussions with Ronen Barzel, Paul Strauss, and Gavin Bell and code written by Ronen and Paul formed the backbone of the engines chapter. Paul Isaacs, the expert on node kits and manipulators, provided all examples for those chapters and even telephoned in his review comments during a Florida vacation. David Mott, the guru on highlighting, events, and devices, was also an excellent overall reviewer and critic. Alain Dumesny and David Mott wrote the components examples and made valuable suggestions for expanding the scope of that chapter. Helga Thorvaldsdóttir and Dave Immel meticulously reviewed many chapters and helped create sample code.

As we approached the finish line, the production team raced hard too. Lorrie Williams edited and formatted the material, and Laura Cooper coordinated testing and scheduling with vendors. Cheri Brown drew the line illustrations. Jackie Neider, my manager at Silicon Graphics, and the other members of the Developer Publications group—Arthur Evans, Beth Fryer, Carol Geary, Eleanor Bassler, Jed Hartman, John Stearns, Ken Jones, Liz Deeth, Patricia Creek, and Wendy Ferguson—were busy running their own marathons, but still managed to provide cheerful encouragement and sustenance (mostly in the form of chocolate).

Credit, too, goes to my husband, Steve, and my sons, Jeff and Evan, whose support at home enabled me to finish this race.