changeset 832:d5688822c51d

Preface, now with actual text

--- a/en/ch00-preface.xml	Thu May 07 21:07:35 2009 -0700
+++ b/en/ch00-preface.xml	Thu May 07 22:32:55 2009 -0700
@@ -5,9 +5,112 @@
   <title>Preface</title>
 
   <sect1>
+    <title>Technical storytelling</title>
+
+    <para id="x_72e">A few years ago, when I wanted to explain why I believed
+      that distributed revision control is important, the field was
+      then so new that there was almost no published literature to
+      refer people to.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_72f">Although at that time I spent some time working on the
+      internals of Mercurial itself, I switched to writing this book
+      because that seemed like the most effective way to help the
+      software to reach a wide audience, along with the idea that
+      revision control ought to be distributed in nature.  I publish
+      the book online under a liberal license for the same
+      reason: to get the word out.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_730">There's a familiar rhythm to a good software book that
+      closely resembles telling a story: What is this thing?  Why does
+      it matter?  How will it help me?  How do I use it?  In this
+      book, I try to answer those questions for distributed revision
+      control in general, and for Mercurial in particular.</para>
+  </sect1>
+    
+  <sect1>
+    <title>Thank you for supporting Mercurial</title>
+
+    <para id="x_731">By purchasing a copy of this book, you are supporting the
+      continued development and freedom of Mercurial in particular,
+      and of open source and free software in general. O'Reilly Media
+      and I are donating my royalties on the sales of this book to the
+      Software Freedom Conservancy (<ulink
+	url="http://www.softwarefreedom.org/">http://www.softwarefreedom.org/</ulink>) 
+      which provides clerical and legal support to Mercurial and a
+      number of other prominent and worthy open source software
+      projects.</para>
+  </sect1>
+
+  <sect1>
+    <title>Acknowledgments</title>
+
+    <para id="x_732">This book would not exist were it not for the efforts of
+      Matt Mackall, the author and project lead of Mercurial.  He is
+      ably assisted by hundreds of volunteer contributors across the
+      world.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_733">My children, Cian and Ruairi, always stood ready to help me
+      to unwind with wonderful, madcap little-boy games.  I'd also
+      like to thank my ex-wife, Shannon, for her support.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_734">My colleagues and friends provided help and support in
+      innumerable ways.  This list of people is necessarily very
+      incomplete: Stephen Hahn, Karyn Ritter, Bonnie Corwin, James
+      Vasile, Matt Norwood, Eben Moglen, Bradley Kuhn, Robert Walsh,
+      Jeremy Fitzhardinge, Rachel Chalmers.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_735">I developed this book in the open, posting drafts of
+      chapters to the book web site as I completed them.  Readers then
+      submitted feedback using a web application that I developed.  By
+      the time I finished writing the book, more than 100 people had
+      submitted comments, an amazing number considering that the
+      comment system was live for only about two months towards the
+      end of the writing process.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_736">I would particularly like to recognize the following people,
+      who between them contributed over a third of the total number of
+      comments.  I would like to thank them for their care and effort
+      in providing so much detailed feedback.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_737">Martin Geisler, Damien Cassou, Alexey Bakhirkin, Till Plewe,
+      Dan Himes, Paul Sargent, Gokberk Hamurcu, Matthijs van der
+      Vleuten, Michael Chermside, John Mulligan, Jordi Fita, Jon
+      Parise.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_738">I also want to acknowledge the help of the many people who
+      caught errors and provided helpful suggestions throughout the
+      book.</para>
+
+    <para id="x_739">Jeremy W. Sherman, Brian Mearns, Vincent Furia, Iwan
+      Luijks, Billy Edwards, Andreas Sliwka, Paweł Sołyga, Eric
+      Hanchrow, Steve Nicolai, Michał Masłowski, Kevin Fitch, Johan
+      Holmberg, Hal Wine, Volker Simonis, Thomas P Jakobsen, Ted
+      Stresen-Reuter, Stephen Rasku, Raphael Das Gupta, Ned
+      Batchelder, Lou Keeble, Li Linxiao, Kao Cardoso Félix, Joseph
+      Wecker, Jon Prescot, Jon Maken, John Yeary, Jason Harris,
+      Geoffrey Zheng, Fredrik Jonson, Ed Davies, David Zumbrunnen,
+      David Mercer, David Cabana, Ben Karel, Alan Franzoni, Yousry
+      Abdallah, Whitney Young, Vinay Sajip, Tom Towle, Tim Ottinger,
+      Thomas Schraitle, Tero Saarni, Ted Mielczarek, Svetoslav
+      Agafonkin, Shaun Rowland, Rocco Rutte, Polo-Francois Poli,
+      Philip Jenvey, Petr Tesałék, Peter R. Annema, Paul Bonser,
+      Olivier Scherler, Olivier Fournier, Nick Parker, Nick Fabry,
+      Nicholas Guarracino, Mike Driscoll, Mike Coleman, Mietek Bák,
+      Michael Maloney, László Nagy, Kent Johnson, Julio Nobrega, Jord
+      Fita, Jonathan March, Jonas Nockert, Jim Tittsler, Jeduan
+      Cornejo Legorreta, Jan Larres, James Murphy, Henri Wiechers,
+      Hagen Möbius, Gábor Farkas, Fabien Engels, Evert Rol, Evan
+      Willms, Eduardo Felipe Castegnaro, Dennis Decker Jensen, Deniz
+      Dogan, David Smith, Daed Lee, Christine Slotty, Charles Merriam,
+      Guillaume Catto, Brian Dorsey, Bob Nystrom, Benoit Boissinot,
+      Avi Rosenschein, Andrew Watts, Andrew Donkin, Alexey Rodriguez,
+      Ahmed Chaudhary.</para>
+  </sect1>
+
+  <sect1>
     <title>Conventions Used in This Book</title>
 
-    <para>The following typographical conventions are used in this
+    <para id="x_73a">The following typographical conventions are used in this
       book:</para>
 
     <variablelist>
@@ -15,7 +118,7 @@
         <term>Italic</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames,
+          <para id="x_73b">Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames,
 	    and file extensions.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -24,7 +127,7 @@
         <term><literal>Constant width</literal></term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>Used for program listings, as well as within
+          <para id="x_73c">Used for program listings, as well as within
 	    paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable
 	    or function names, databases, data types, environment
 	    variables, statements, and keywords.</para>
@@ -35,7 +138,7 @@
         <term><userinput>Constant width bold</userinput></term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>Shows commands or other text that should be typed
+          <para id="x_73d">Shows commands or other text that should be typed
 	    literally by the user.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -44,26 +147,26 @@
         <term><replaceable>Constant width italic</replaceable></term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied
+          <para id="x_73e">Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied
 	    values or by values determined by context.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
     </variablelist>
 
     <tip>
-      <para>This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general
+      <para id="x_73f">This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general
 	note.</para>
     </tip>
 
     <caution>
-      <para>This icon indicates a warning or caution.</para>
+      <para id="x_740">This icon indicates a warning or caution.</para>
     </caution>
   </sect1>
 
   <sect1>
     <title>Using Code Examples</title>
 
-    <para>This book is here to help you get your job done. In general,
+    <para id="x_741">This book is here to help you get your job done. In general,
       you may use the code in this book in your programs and
       documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission
       unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For
@@ -75,13 +178,13 @@
       amount of example code from this book into your product’s
       documentation does require permission.</para>
 
-    <para>We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An
+    <para id="x_742">We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An
       attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and
       ISBN. For example: “<emphasis>Book Title</emphasis> by Some
       Author. Copyright 2008 O’Reilly Media, Inc.,
       978-0-596-xxxx-x.”</para>
 
-    <para>If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use
+    <para id="x_743">If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use
       or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at
       <email>[e-mail]</email>.</para>
   </sect1>
@@ -90,13 +193,13 @@
     <title>Safari® Books Online</title>
 
     <note role="safarienabled">
-      <para>When you see a Safari® Books Online icon on the cover of
+      <para id="x_744">When you see a Safari® Books Online icon on the cover of
 	your favorite technology book, that means the book is
 	available online through the O’Reilly Network Safari
 	Bookshelf.</para>
     </note>
 
-    <para>Safari offers a solution that’s better than e-books. It’s a
+    <para id="x_745">Safari offers a solution that’s better than e-books. It’s a
       virtual library that lets you easily search thousands of top
       tech books, cut and paste code samples, download chapters, and
       find quick answers when you need the most accurate, current
@@ -107,7 +210,7 @@
   <sect1>
     <title>How to Contact Us</title>
 
-    <para>Please address comments and questions concerning this book
+    <para id="x_746">Please address comments and questions concerning this book
       to the publisher:</para>
 
     <simplelist type="vert">
@@ -124,7 +227,7 @@
       <member>707 829-0104 (fax)</member>
     </simplelist>
 
-    <para>We have a web page for this book, where we list errata,
+    <para id="x_747">We have a web page for this book, where we list errata,
       examples, and any additional information. You can access this
       page at:</para>
 
@@ -136,14 +239,14 @@
     <remark>Don’t forget to update the &lt;url&gt; attribute,
       too.</remark>
 
-    <para>To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send
+    <para id="x_748">To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send
       email to:</para>
 
     <simplelist type="vert">
       <member><email>[e-mail]</email></member>
     </simplelist>
 
-    <para>For more information about our books, conferences, Resource
+    <para id="x_749">For more information about our books, conferences, Resource
       Centers, and the O’Reilly Network, see our web site at:</para>
 
     <simplelist type="vert">