Ray Lischner began his career as a software developer, but dropped out of the corporate rat race to become an author. He started using C++ in the late 1980s, working at a company that was rewriting its entire product line in C++. Over the years, he has witnessed the evolution of C++ from cfront to native compilers to integrated development environments to visual, component-based tools. Ray has taught C++ at Oregon State University. He is the author of Delphi in a Nutshell and O'Reilly's upcoming C++ in a Nutshell, as well as other books.