Oracle Database 11 g - Online Public Access Catalog

AcknowledgmentsFirst and foremost, I’d like to acknowledge my gratitude for Charles Kim, my coauthor. It’s aprivilege to write a book with a consummate Oracle professional such as Charles. Charles hasmade writing this book a great pleasure, and he worked hard to meet our short deadlines, thisbeing a “new features” book, whose contents always seem to be in a flux.No Oracle-based book, let alone a “new features” book, can be conjured from thin air. Iwant to acknowledge the wonderful efforts of the Oracle Beta folks, who made the Oracle Database11g Beta release available to me by extending an invitation to be part of their beta testingteam. I benefited immensely by the high-quality e-studies and other technical studies madeavailable by Oracle Corporation to the beta participants, as well as from the access to the betasoftware itself. I want to acknowledge in particular Lynn Snyder and Debbie Migliore, as well asSheila Cepero, all from Oracle Corporation, for all their help over the last year while I was testingthis exciting new offering from Oracle Corporation.Jonathan Gennick, the editor, has as usual left his powerful mark on the book. I can’t thinkof any part of this book that didn’t benefit from Jonathan’s conscientious and superb editing atboth the technical as well the editorial level. Robert Blok, the technical editor, helped by pointingout several aspects that needed clarification. I owe thanks to the professional competence thatthe project manager, Sofia Marchant, brought to bear on the book. Sofia’s kindness and coolefficiency over the past few months while managing a book under short deadlines is what helpedCharles and I finish this book on time. Kim Wimpsett, the copy editor, did a superb job, goingto great lengths to nail down numerous issues regarding style, terminology, consistency, andaccuracy (although I think I’ve imposed a considerable burden on her by adding more newfeatures in each iteration of the review process!). Kelly Winquist, the production editor, admirablymanaged the stupendously difficult task of getting this book out in time without compromisingquality. April Eddy, the proofreader, did a brilliant job, without which my less than perfecttyping skills would have been fully evident to the world. April has not only caught several insidioustypos but also zoomed in on several tricky usage situations, always pointing out the correctapproach. I’m grateful for the efforts of Sofia, Kim, Kelly, and April as well as the entire productiongroup for going way beyond any call of duty and cheerfully moving the book along under thestress of looming deadlines. It’s customary for the author to thank the editorial and productionfolks, I suppose, but I simply can’t imagine this book being ready in time and in good shapewithout the supreme effort and dedication shown by the previously mentioned people.My managers, Dave Campbell and David Jeffries, have been supportive of my endeavors,and I’m grateful for their encouragement over the years. My colleagues—Rob Page, Lance Parkes,Stan Galbraith, Dan Nelson, Dabir Haidar, Sabrina Kirkpatrick, and Carla Wallace—have alsobeen helpful to me at work, and I appreciate their help and friendship. I also want to acknowledgemy friends at work, Debra Kendrew, Myra Riggs, and especially Leticia Salazar; Leticia has beenvery helpful during the past few months in helping take care of a lot of my affairs at work.xxi