Acknowledgments

Nothing in this world can be materialized without collective effort. I cannot thank each and everyone behind this success enough.

When this proposal was projected to me, I was unsure whether I could do it. Initially, my dear friend and ex-colleague Shahid Riaz encouraged me to take up this task. I was still not firm about my decision of writing this book, when my mentor, Hazrat-e-Aqdas Shah Abdul Khaliq Azad Raipuri, motivated me to proceed with it. His words have been a source of inspiration for me at every step. I became more confident and completed this book with his prayers and by the grace of Allah.

I would like to thank Shahid Riaz along with his ex-colleague Guila Fourie for reviewing my proposed outline.

I would like to thank my colleagues at Mentor Graphics, Pakistan—Usama Masood, Abbas Raza, Ehson Hussain, and Adeel Arshad—for providing help and support.

I would also like to thank people from Packt with whom I worked. Sonali Vernekar (acquisition editor) was my first point of contact; she is the one who chose me for this work. I had pleasure of working with Mamata Walkar (content development editor), Sageer Parkar and Shipra Chauhan (project coordinators), and Edwin Moses (technical editor). Mamata Walkar was the person I remained in touch with all the time. Thanks for being so cooperative and helpful.

I would like to thank my family members: my extremely caring wife, my son, and my daughter, of course, although I had to wait for her to sleep to do the chores.