Rating: 
Summary: A Must Have For ALL Developers
Review: I can't stress to you enough that this is the XML book of all XML books. I am NOT an expert in XML, but with this book, I can fumble my way through an XML application. This book will NOT teach you everything there is to know about XML. This book IS a wonderful reference to thumb through for each XML question that arises. If I had to buy one XML book to do my job, XML in a Nutshell would be the one. I own many books in the "Nutshell" series and absolutely LOVE and use them all. So if you've got a project in XML to complete, go get this book and watch how much time it saves you.
Rating:
Summary: Useful when taking a course in XML.
Review: I found this book useful for learning XML. Because XML offers a large variety of uses, this book is not well suited for beginners. pvr-consulting
Rating: 
Summary: bad organization with some typo erros.
Review: I have read part of the book and tried to use it as a reference, but always confused with the bad organization, not to mention some typo errors.
personally, I don't recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference but wait for the second edition
Review: I like the tack the authors have chosen (or maybe it's imposed upon O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series). All the info about XML and associated technologies is there but it cuts to chase. Lean and mean, but with enough examples--which is so important! I must say I've learned much about XML reading this book and use it as a desktop reference (as it was meant to be).The bad news as other reviewers have pointed out is that the 1st ed. is littered with typos and errors. Sadly some of them are in the code examples. I'm frowning because I actually copied an error thinking that it was the proper syntax. ... The second edition is forthcoming, June 2002 according to O'Reilly. Hope the authors have a much cleaner text this time. May I suggest going for this new edition instead?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent starting point and long-term reference
Review: I started becoming familiarized with XML a month ago or so, and this book has been an extraordinary reference for me as a begginner, and as I've been gaining more understanding of all the potential that this technology has. It is well written and provides enough examples as it goes along, so as to not overwhelm you with plain theoretical information, without becoming a library of examples either. This is absolutely necesary to get started, since the W3C XML standard just won't do, given it's theoretical approach. Get it: you will need it more and more as XML continues to grow in use and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Contains an UGLY ERROR! Otherwise, fantastic!
Review: It's a really wonderful reference, and I was sure waiting for O'Reilly to come out with this one. But there's a pretty ugly error on page 35, under DTD's, in which a chart displays ?, *, and + and states that they all mean the same thing - 'Permits zero or one of the element'. WOOPS. I own several other 'In a Nutshell' books (and love them all), but this is the first one in which I've found such a glaring error! Ack! Unfortunately, you gotta lose a star for blowing such a basic chart...
Rating:
Summary: Solid
Review: Like most O'Reilly books, a good, solid overview of XML, with no screen-shot fluff or excessive code samples. A good, fairly detailed discussion of name spaces and DTD's. I got a little lost in the XPath and XPointers chapters. The parts on SAX and DOM were a bit introductory, but enough to give you an overview. I didn't see much on JDOM, JAX etc.; I guess for this you need O'Reilly's 'Java and XML'. I would have liked to have seen a bit more on SOAP/WSDL/UDDI and XML-RPC, as well as XML schemas.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, compact book
Review: My compliment for the excellent XIAN 2nd edition. I really like the short format of this book. A lot of information and clear
examples without much clutter in a few pages. Well done! Personally, I wouldn't mind if the reference section (part IV) would be taken out. These are easilly available from the WEB, and I prefer references in electronic format anyway, because I will always have them at hand (everything that I need is on my laptop), and they can easilly be searched. It would make the book a somewhat lighter in appearance.
Rating:
Summary: Good book if you know what to expect . . .
Review: Over the years, I have used several books in the nutshell series and I have always found them to be useful. However if you buy any nutshell book and more specifically the "XML in a nutshell" book with the intention of learning XML from scratch, then you will be disappointed. This book is meant to be a pocket reference for those who know XML and don't want a huge book on their desk. This book scratches the surface of several XML topics like DTDs,XLink,XPointer,DOM,SAX,CSS etc, but doesn't explore any subject in detail. However one glaring omission is XML schema. If you are a techie trying to learn XML or an experienced professional looking to enhance your understanding of XML and the related technologies, then Professional XML from Wrox press is a much better bet of your money. Overall the most useful section of this book is the reference section at the end and is well worth the money if what you want is a good reference book.
Rating:
Summary: Good book if you know what to expect . . .
Review: Over the years, I have used several books in the nutshell series and I have always found them to be useful. However if you buy any nutshell book and more specifically the "XML in a nutshell" book with the intention of learning XML from scratch, then you will be disappointed. This book is meant to be a pocket reference for those who know XML and don't want a huge book on their desk. This book scratches the surface of several XML topics like DTDs,XLink,XPointer,DOM,SAX,CSS etc, but doesn't explore any subject in detail. However one glaring omission is XML schema. If you are a techie trying to learn XML or an experienced professional looking to enhance your understanding of XML and the related technologies, then Professional XML from Wrox press is a much better bet of your money. Overall the most useful section of this book is the reference section at the end and is well worth the money if what you want is a good reference book.
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