Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach

This book was the most arduous, time-consuming, and energy-sapping project I have ever done. The only reason I could get through this was the love and support I received from my wife, Gowri. Around the same time as I decided to write this book, we learned that we were expecting a baby. As all of my free time went to the book, Gowri's responsibilities increased exponentially, especially after little Arjun arrived. With her seemingly infinite strength and patience, Gowri made it all work eventually. My greatest thanks go to her. Arjun continually gave me energy through his wonderful smile and antics. I also thank our families for their love and support, and especially Gowri's mom and her sister, Gayethri, for traveling halfway across the worldseveral times during the two years I spent on the bookto help us when we needed family support.

Very special thanks to Steve Welch, my manager at IBM Research, who was incredibly supportive and put up with my erratic schedule at work.

I can't thank Snorri Gylfason enough. He is single-handedly responsible for introducing me to the Macintosh. Had it not been for him, I would not have begun to use Mac OS X, would not have been curious about the system, and would not have written this book. Snorri was also the most prolific and hard-working reviewer for the bookhe meticulously went through each page, each illustration, and each example, using his rather easy flowing red markers to great effect. We had countless all-night reviewing sessions. On many other occasions (essentially every day), Snorri patiently listened to the frustrated whining of an overworked author. Even after he moved back to his native Iceland, Snorri fulfilled all his reviewing commitments.

Thanks to Mark A. Smith for reviewing almost the entire book despite having no initial interest in Mac OS X. Mark provided valuable feedback, often reading at a bewildering pace but catching errors so subtle that it defied logic. Thanks to Ted Bonkenburg, Úlfar Erlingsson, and Anurag Sharma for reviewing several chapters with uncompromising scrutiny. Ted graciously had numerous discussions with me, as I stole time from his extremely busy schedule.

Thanks to Anita Holmgren of Tenon Systems for sending me a copy of Mach^Ten.

Thanks to the team at Addison-Wesley for all their hard work and dedication. In particular, thanks to my editor Catherine Nolan for managing this project (and for dealing with me). Thanks to Mark Taub, John Wait, Denise Mickelsen, Stephane Nakib, Kim Spilker, Beth Wickenhiser, Lara Wysong, and all others whose names I do not know for the roles they played in the making of this book.

Finally, thanks to my copy editor, Chrysta Meadowbrooke, for her top-notch work.