Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is a truly outstanding book. Of the very many computer books I have read, this is one of the top 5. As other reviews have correctly stated, this is neither a tutorial nor an introductory text. But if you have been working with XML/XSL for even a little while, the dearth of complete and accurate documentation becomes onerous. I have spent untold hours experimenting with variations of syntax to get the desired results, never really understanding what I was doing. After reading this book, so many of the mysteries and black magic incantations I had built developed now become clear. This is a deeply detailed reference book, and it is very much written from the perspective of an author of an XSLT parser. You get innumerable details about all sorts of arcana. But once you get beyond some very simple stylesheets, I have found that you often need this kind of detail to help you understand exactly what is going on. The heavy slogging thru the material is greatly aided by Mr. Kay's refreshing writing style. He completely avoids the fluff, illiteracy, or arrogance so common in technical writing. His language is precise, yet easy to read. Most commendable are his examples. Rather than the trivial, artificial or non-sensical example we often see, each example here (and there are LOTS of them) is well-crafted, well-explained, and relevant to a real-world task. Another astounding fact is the relative sparseness of typos and errors. As an author myself, I know that computer publishers rush to print with all sorts of egregious errors that are very disruptive. Although I did encounter a very few errors in this book, Mr. Kay and Wrox are to be commended highly for a very professional first edition. A monumental writing job, excellently done. This belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who is seriously involved in XSL work.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly organised
Review: Although this book appears to cover most of the subject area, its disorganised structure make it a difficult companion, both for learning the subject and as a reference. The writer's style is difficult to follow and does not lend well to diving in to learn about a particular area in detail. The author recommends his own product, SAXON, which seems to do things in an unusual and non-intuitive fashion. This book was one of the first to market on the topic. Unfortunately it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Worth every cent
Review: The scope and goal of the XSLT Programmer's Reference by Michael Kay is precisely defined and adhered to. It is indeed an excellent reference (as opposed to a tutorial) on the subject of XSLT version 1.0. I have given 5 stars to only three other books in the past, and this was for what I regard to be truely remarkable contributions: Design Patterns (Gamma), OOCS2 (Meyer) and Concurrent Programming in Java (Lea). Whilst not as generally applicable as these works, Mr Kay's XSLT-PR deserves its five stars for sheer timeliness, accuracy and quality of writing - not to mention value for money.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on XSLT
Review: Over the past year I have purchased about 5 different XML books. I bought each book because they had at least one chapter on XSL - most XML books had nothing. Finally, a book comes out the discusses in depth everything you wanted to know about XSL translations. I like the book because it covers all of the currently available XSL parsers. This book is excellent for the Web developer or programmer who is interested in using XML/XSL translations. The book is an excellent companion to Wrox's other XML book, "Professional XML."
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, but beware
Review: This is a great book. It's loaded with examples, it is comprehensive in its coverage, and it conveys both the practical and philosophical aspects of this huge new revolution known as XML. The author has a wonderful explanation of how XSL was designed to not include an assignment operator. This is not the work of some dope just trying to waste paper and catch a ride on the latest wave. The beware is that the author recommends his own XSLT processor (Saxon). It is good and I would encourage people to use it, but it does some really stupid things that could drive you crazy. For instance, if one of the files you stipulate on the command line cannot be found, it doesn't tell you that, it just throws the filename up on the screen instead of the output. Likewise, if you leave the <xsl:stylesheet> tag open, it will just say 'error processing stylesheet no more input'. These are but two examples. We also found that his implementation of the crucial document function doesn't work in his Java code, where the Apache projects did. It's a shame these kinds of things are in here because XSLT allows you to very quickly perform some incredibly sophisticated feats without killing yourself. Definitely buy, just proceed with caution once you start working with it.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensible Reference Book for Hardcore XSL Programmers
Review: If your a professional programmer needing more in depth explainations of XSL, then this book is for you. However, if you are a newcomer to XML, then go buy a beginners book for XML first. This book is structured like a reference manual and would be bad choice for learning XSL from square one. Once you master the fundamentals of XSL, download the XSL specification and buy "XSLT."
Rating:
Summary: IMPORTANT: Things to keep in mind before buying this book
Review: 1. This is really a reference, not a tutorial. It does include a "no nonsense tutorial" which will guide you through the basic XSLT topics, but if you have no XML experience, start with one of the more basic Wrox offerings. (David Hunter's Beginning XML -- which I hear will be excellent -- is going to be released by Wrox early in June.) 2. If you are unclear on the purposes of XSLT, understand that it is a programming language for converting data, performing scripting tasks, etc. on the way to a pure HTML or XML layout. I only mention this because some developers seem to be operating under the mistaken belief that XSLT is an appropriate subject for graphic designers, perhaps because XSLT contains the word "style." Do NOT get this book for your design staff. 3. Not a major hurdle for most of us, but some implementations, such as Xalan, are not covered. That aside, this is a fantastic book. Everything I can think of in the XSL arena is covered, including extending XSL. The author, Michael Kay, who was such a force on the Professional XML team, once again proves to be an excellent writer. The browser specific details are just what I needed to solve many of my real-world production problems. And I continue to be amazed at the speed with which Wrox gets these comprehensive volumes to press.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical Wrox
Review: Standard Wrox book -- Able to come out first on a hot topic by pulling most of the text directly from spec sheets, then wrapping some of their own thoughts around it. Usually, by the time they get to the third printing, though, they've totally rewritten it to actually be readable. The examples are fairly abstract and weak -- Don't try to see the results from them, 'cause they're really for demonstration purposes only. Another Wrox publishing technique is to repeatedly make references to other sections within the book. This works great online using hyperlinks, but supplies no continuity in a printed book. Again, it appears it's easier to fall back on "goto's", than to take the time to logically organize a book. Finally, while I expect a certain level of jargon in a technical book, just plain bad writing is something else. For example, if you think the following text is just fine, then this book is for you: "In this case the XPath expression is a path expression starting with <<document('')>>, which selects the root node of the stylesheet module, followed by <<*>>, which selects its first child (the <xsl:stylesheet> element), followed by <<user:data>>, which selects the <user:data> element, followed by <<message[@nr=$message-nr]>>, which selects the <message> element whose nr attribute is equal to the value of the $message-nr parameter in the stylesheet." Got that? My advice: Wait for O'Reilly Press to come out with a usable book.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing work!
Review: Amazingly comprehensive: Covers everything about XSLT theories and the implementations of different processors. Amazingly updated: It is published in April 2000, and covers information as updated as March 2000. Amazingly error-free: No major errors were found after my first round! Amazingly low-priced. It is actually a 780+ page book, not 400 pages as indicated, at the marked price!
Rating:
Summary: Must have.
Review: From my posting to XSL-list. I had a chance to preview some chapters of this book and I would like to say that I think this book is *must have* for anyone who is thinking about writing the XSLT stylesheets. Not only it is very well written and provides the answers to most of the questions hanging around this list, but it is also *very* good companion to XSLT WD because Michael's examples are *very* tasty and not overlap with the examples from XSLT WD. And there is plenty of reasonable examples there. Also Michael makes almost perfect generalizations, he spent significant time for observing 'all existing' XSLT engines. E t.c. I would say that this book is one of the best references I ever saw in my life and I'l for sure bye a print copy for myself, even I 'already have read it'.
| 
