He has labored on, in, and under various UNIX-like environments for around 15 years. His first exposure to project control came long ago via an m4-based front-end to make, which demonstrated how easy and useful (not to say necessary) it is to write such extensions under UNIX. Subsequent work on many other tools taught him the value of discipline and a healthy respect for prior art, both of which he hopes this book manages to pass along. Don got his B.A. in English from Yale University, and finds natural languages just as engaging as the programming kind. He enjoys French history, culture, and wine (not necessarily in that order).