XSLT

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Tidwell's indulgence at my expense (Time & Money)
Review: ... There are simply too few examples and too much indulgence in areas that are of relatively no importance to the learning of XSLT for a beginner. Like a Greek tragedy, Mr. Tidwell's downfall is perhaps his overwhelming knowledge of the subject. He seems to be bored with the basics. He is so far ahead that he had forgotten what's important and/or difficult for someone who is trying to pick up XSLT as a novice. He has forgotten his audience... and instead uses the opportunity to indulge into his wide variety personal interests - computer, chemistry, Shakespeare, etc.

I bought this book because it's a recommended book by IBM for XML certification... They did this probably because it's an O'Riley book which is usually good. But this one is an EXCEPTION. I wish they will drop this book from their recommendation list and stop victimizing us. It's too late for me but I hope the ones that follow will read this and think twice.

Rating:
Summary: More difficult than it needs to be.
Review: A useful book but not an easy read. Plowing through the material is a worthwile - if painful - experience. In going through this text I got the feeling that the material shouldn't really be as difficult as the presentation made it seem.

I haven't looked at some of the books other reviewers have suggested but the new inductee to XSLT may want to start with something else first and if that solves your problem great - if not you might choose this one as a suppliment.

Rating:
Summary: More difficult than it needs to be.
Review: A useful book but not an easy read. Plowing through the material is a worthwile - if painful - experience. In going through this text I got the feeling that the material shouldn't really be as difficult as the presentation made it seem.

I haven't looked at some of the books other reviewers have suggested but the new inductee to XSLT may want to start with something else first and if that solves your problem great - if not you might choose this one as a suppliment.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, not well organized
Review: As a cookbook, it doesn't tell you nearly enough about the nitty-gritty of the functions it documents. On the other hand, it's too disorganized to be a good introduction -- it doesn't lead the reader through the need-concept-implementation loop. The first couple chapters were OK, but I found that every time I tried something using the book, there was an essential piece of information missing. The XSLT reference section was actually less informative than the online XSLT site documentation(!), and the chapters seemed to restate the same information in a different order. I was reduced to trial and error in order to find out how functions actually behaved. Who needs to spend $40 on a book just to wind up browsing the online API doc and experimenting?

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, not well organized
Review: As a cookbook, it doesn't tell you nearly enough about the nitty-gritty of the functions it documents. On the other hand, it's too disorganized to be a good introduction -- it doesn't lead the reader through the need-concept-implementation loop. The first couple chapters were OK, but I found that every time I tried something using the book, there was an essential piece of information missing. The XSLT reference section was actually less informative than the online XSLT site documentation(!), and the chapters seemed to restate the same information in a different order. I was reduced to trial and error in order to find out how functions actually behaved. Who needs to spend $40 on a book just to wind up browsing the online API doc and experimenting?

Rating:
Summary: There are better offerings out there
Review: As a programmer who's been around the block more than once, I found this book made XSLT a lot more difficult than it needs to be. I had no previous experience with XSLT other than I knew what the acronym stood for. The examples get too difficult too quickly, and aren't very useful, in my opinion. The index is also pretty lousy, which makes learning a new technology difficult.

The chapter about Toot-o-Matic, however, was pretty interesting. It made me realize that XSLT can be used for some interesting and complicated problems.

I found "XSLT Quickly", published by Manning, to be a far better choice for someone with my level of XSLT experience. Perhaps I'll appreciate the O'Reilly title more when I have more experience.

Rating:
Summary: for java programmers needing to use XSLT
Review: As an experienced java programmer, I found that I was able to get up to speed on xslt rather quickly after reading thru the book. I have heard Doug Tidwell speak at various conferences and he is an excellent public speaker. His writing style is the same.

By working thru the examples, I was able to gain enough of an understanding of xslt to implement an xslt project at work.

The book covers the basics of xml briefly, and does a good job of covering xslt. I think the book assumes a knowledge of xml. But then, no book can be all things to all people. And if all you are looking for is an xml book, I would buy an xml book. Then buy this book when you are ready to move on to xslt

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: As an experienced programmer, but a newcomer to XSLT, I had high hopes of both it and this book. Both were disappointed.

Clearly, Doug Tidwell knows his stuff very well indeed. Perhaps too well, for I can't remember seeing such complicated code to do such underwhelming tasks since my own first attempts at writing assembler over thirty years ago.

To take six pages of code to draw a pie chart in a "high-level language" sends a number of signals: the author is very good at what he does; the language is being applied to something for which it wasn't designed or intended; or the language itself is a seventy-pound verbose weakling.

I didn't buy the book to learn Java or Javascript, yet the examples are full of it. Especially impractical was the case study: in order to do counter-productive things like making JPEGs out of text, thereby increasing download times and reducing accessibility for vision-impaired readers, it was necessary to provide us with details of a JPEG-making extension which only serves to complicate an already-complex language in an unmaintainable manner.

But potentially useful things like xsl:copy-of and xsl:number were left to abbreviated, innocuous summaries in the reference section.

As a closing slap in the face, a glossary - redundant for anyone who managed to understand the rest of the book, but relatively useless for those who didn't.

Every IT manager who values his job should read this book, as a warning of how the tail, once more, is trying to wag the dog, and how big are the risks of high maintenance costs.

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a big favor and get this book now
Review: Coding DTDs and XML documents is easy enough. But getting anything useful out of an XML document requires you to either write a program or to write an XSLT template. I'm not a hard-core programmer, so I'm pretty much limited to using XSLT. Doug takes you from the simplest of concepts to some pretty complex XSLT coding...all the while using tons of real-world examples and tips. The XPath chapter is especially helpful, taking all the mystery out of the strange syntax rules. The appendices provide loads of info on functions, too. If you've ever seen Doug on the conference circuit, you know that he's a really funny guy; his humor really comes through in the book, making it a joy to read. Summary: Finally a book by someone who knows his stuff AND knows how to get it across to the rest of us!

Rating:
Summary: Written to be used
Review: Frequently, books on XML topics seem to be written only for other XML book authors. Doug Tidwell's book shows that it's possible to write for someone who actually needs to use the information. I found the examples instructive and the writing clear. In particular, the organization is outstanding. It manages to be both easy to read in tutorial fashion and easy to use as a reference. An excellent work.