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Summary: Very good XML book
Review: This book was a major reason why I recently obtained my IBM XML certification. I purchased several books but mainly used this one. I found the flow of the book to be excellent. Fairly easy reading with Listings and Examples that made sense.I found chapter 5 XSL Transformations to be in-valuable in passing the test. The proof is in the pudding Ladies and Gentlemen, I achieved my goal of XML certification with the help of this book.
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Summary: The best book by far on basics of XML/CSS/XSLT/DOM
Review: It's very easy to read and it really covers basic topics and concepts.
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Summary: JUST AWSOME
Review: After I read only 30 pages of this book, I put all my other XML materials that I downloaded from the internet in the garbage can. Those materials just made me confused. This book made crystal clear what XML is all about especially to the beginners like myself. I also enjoyed how the author organized and laid out his idea in this book. How beautiful!
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Summary: XML by eXMpLe
Review: XML by eXMpLe is a quick, easy, phenomenal read. It makes an elementary programmer feel advanced. If I were a professor I would read straight from this book to teach my beginning students. I bought this book because I wanted to know the answers when tested on XML technology and applications and how to actually apply the language in applications. I got it. If you want to know how to use the XML vocabulary to express yourself to management/clients and apply XML today, this book has the answer. The electronic newsletter example is excellent - using XML to publish to ASCII text and HTML versions from a single source document. Also, he explains how to write XML that displays with a .htm extension (not .xml) using XSL and XHTML (p.144), so users with non-XML browsers can still view your beautiful XML creations. In Java it's write once, run anywhere. In XML it's write once, publish anywhere. I see why Benoit loves both!
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Summary: One of the easiest to understand
Review: This book is easy to understand and covers the material very well. There are a number of typos and mistakes, like, "To a nonvalidating parser, every document is a well-formed document." This is false, of course. And, "Well-formed documents have no DTD, so the XML processor cannot check their structure." Any valid document is, by definition, well-formed, and how is the author defining "structure"? And I thought the analogy for modularized entities odd: "This is like chewing a tough steak: You have to cut the meat into smaller pieces until you can chew it." But generally the book covers important topics in a clear, easy to understand fashion. Certainly worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: One of the easiest to understand
Review: This book is easy to understand and covers the material very well. There are a number of typos and mistakes, like, "To a nonvalidating parser, every document is a well-formed document". This is false, of course. And, "Well-formed documents have no DTD, so the XML processor cannot check their structure." Any valid document is, by definition, well-formed, and how is the author defining "structure"? And I thought the analogy for modularized entities odd: "This is like chewing a tough steak: You have to cut the meat into smaller pieces until you can chew it." But generally the book covers important topics in a clear, easy to understand fashion. Certainly worth the money.
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Summary: Good introductory book
Review: I have worked most of the way through this book over the past 3 days and feel like I understand the basics of XML. It has Java examples and I've got a few of those working also. This is a good book to introduce XML, but it isn't good as a reference and it doesn't go very in-depth into any one topic. Although, I don't think it intends to. The only thing about the book that bothers me is that the tools it references using aren't explained very well. For example, it describes using LotusXSL for the examples, but doesn't give much detail on getting that application to work. That is why I gave it 4 stars.
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Summary: He Says: You never learn anything by doing it right!
Review: I received XML By Example as I was exploring various books and materials (including many from the World Wide Web Consortium) for a course in XML that I am introducing for a local community education program. The first 30 minutes of flipping through it convinced me that not only I made the right selection, I just got lucky. My task became much easier. This is probably one of the best technical books I've seen in my 27 years of career in computer software and systems. Thank you very much, Benoit, for writing this book and sharing it with others. It presents complex topics simply and in a friendly manner. I can almost hear you, over my shoulder, saying "Sure, you can do it. One step at a time, keep going, and I'll guide you." Congratulations! The only flaw, if it can be called that, is that some terms and constructs are used before they are explained.
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Summary: This book is a shame to other XML books
Review: There is a myriad of XML books in the market, ranging from reference to introduction to advanced to integration to Java to explanation to managers. Not a single one of these books can claim to be so clear and concise as this one. It is both practical and conceptual, both comprehensive and introductory. The author excels in nearly every single page. You will not believe XML could be so simple. You will try to see what the other books say, you will try to believe that it is more complex, that you will need to learn a lot more. But you will keep coming back to this one book again and again. And sooner or later you will understand how outstanding and unique this book is.
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Summary: Book needed editing. Too many listings.
Review: I was looking for a book that would be a solid introduction to XML. This book looked promising, but there are several things about it that irritate me. One is that I suspect that English may not be Mr. Marchal's first language. This is not a crime, but the publisher should have assigned an editor who paid closer attention to the text. I found it very distracting. My other major compaint is so much of the book is listings. Granted, the title does say, "By Example", but I could have used more explanation. Perhaps a CD could have been included. All that said, this isn't a bad book, it simply could have been better. And there doesn't seem to be a better book available at this time. Like so many current computer books it shows signs of having been rushed into print with insufficient editing.
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