This is an open-source book, which means everyone has a legal write to modify it to their liking. As the author, I freely accept input from readers that will make this book better. This appendix exists to give credit to those readers who have made substantial contributions to this book.
Sadly, this list does not show the names of every person who has helped me identify and correct minor typographical and grammatical errors. The list of names and errors would be quite substantial, I must admit. Those persons who are listed for their identification of typographical errors have earned a place on the list through sheer volume of errors found. I am indebted to my students, and to readers around the world for their careful reading of the text and their considerate feedback.
If you find this textbook exceeds your expectations, know that it is primarily because of this detailed reader feedback. When a book is edited by its author, based on daily feedback from the people using it, errors as well as unclear explanations get identified and corrected at a much more rapid pace than what is typical during a traditional (published) textbook editing cycle. As an author, you might think you have explained something perfectly well, only to find your readers mystified. It is only by discovering your readers are baffled by your “good” explanation that you will know to edit that explanation, or to take a completely different approach in explaining the concept. Then, you need to get more feedback after the edit(s), to see whether or not you’ve made an improvement.
This kind of tight feedback loop between authors and readers simply doesn’t happen in a traditional textbook publishing model. In an open-source, self-published model, however, this kind of feedback is not only possible, but is also typical. For this reason, I strongly encourage teachers everywhere to consider writing their own open-source textbooks, using their students as editors to prove whether or not their writing is effective. The world is unfortunately filled with poor-quality texts. Let’s change this sad state of affairs, one open-source textbook at a time!
