When I first thought about writing this book, I immediately thought of O'Reilly & Associates to publish it. They were the first publisher I contacted, and the one I most wanted to work with because of their tradition of books covering "just the facts." This approach is not what one normally thinks of in connection with books on data structures and algorithms. When one studies data structures and algorithms, normally there is a fair amount of time spent on proving their correctness rigorously. Consequently, many books on this subject have an academic feel about them, and real details such as implementation and application are left to be resolved elsewhere. This book covers how and why certain data structures and algorithms work, real applications that use them (including many examples), and their implementation. Mathematical rigor appears only to the extent necessary in explanations.

Naturally, I was very happy that O'Reilly & Associates saw value in a book that covered this aspect of the subject. This preface contains some of the reasons I think you will find this book valuable as well. It also covers certain aspects of the code in the book, defines a few conventions, and gratefully acknowledges the people who played a part in the book's creation.