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Summary: XML Pocket Reference Review
Review: ...XML is becoming in lingua franca for exchanging informationbetween computer systems. Many Java technologies implement XML as away to establish properties. XML is a way to disseminate records fromdatabases to XML-aware applications at-large. I found the book to bemost helpful and sits beside me as I work on my computer.Thebook provides practical examples and then fully explains using thoseexample's line-by-line in most cases. Overviews provide well-roundedunderstanding as the reader proceeds. The book's index is extensiveand most helpful. Topics include the complete description ofDTD's, elements, entities, and attributes. It cleared up someconfusion I had about default namespaces and should make it clear toanyone else too. It covers XML Stylesheets and the various XSLstylesheet elements that trigger actions as a XML document istranslated. It covers Xlink and XPointer topics, although the authorpoints out these are changing rapidly and may be out-of-date even atthe time of printing. The book serves as a handy encyclopedia of termsand definitions concerning XML. If you are learning about othertechnologies that incorporate XML, I strongly recommend this book as acompanion during your reading, learning, and understanding itsuses. Rating: 9.5 out of 10 This rating is my own personal valuesystem and as such is very subjective. I think a rating of 5 means Iwould read finish reading a book. A rating of 10 would indicate I hadtrouble putting a book down and have no complaints at all about it.
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Summary: A Pleasant mis-title
Review: As with all pocket references, you'd expect to have some knowledge of the topic before you can have any use of the book. This book clearly violates this rule. It goes beyond just being a reference. For an experienced programmer who does not have the time, nor does he need, to waiste on hundreds of pages to get to the point to learn XML, this book is the answer. I admired its style from the first 10 pages. I wanted to say a lot more about this book, but thanks to all of the reviewers who preceeded me, I will adhere to the "pocket" spirit and say I agree with all the above praise !
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Summary: Who is this book aimed at?
Review: Before buying this book, question yourself: how much XML do I really know? If you are a relative newbie to XML, this pocket reference doesn't go into enough detail to really get you up-to-speed on the inner-workings of XML (like DTD's, XSL stylesheets). If you know XML pretty well, those bigger, thicker books you used to learn XML are going to be more in-depth than this reference and will contain the same information, just more of it to thumb through.
I bought this pocket reference along with Harold's XML Bible. The XML Bible may be 1,000 pages, but it has the same information as the pocket reference and an index, so it's just as easy for me to look up a topic among those 1,000 pages. I gave the book three stars because it does summarize XML quite well, I just can't seem to figure out who the intended audience is.
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Summary: Great XML Jump Start
Review: Great intro to XML. Gets right down to business and doesn't waste time being cute. Good for technical managers who need to stay abreast but don't have time to read something the size of Webster's Dictionary.
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Summary: Rats best buy this year!
Review: Having read "Teach Youself XML in 21 Days" and "XML by Example" it is nice to have a quick reference by the mouse since I can't remember the syntax of things. The best thing in this book is pages 39 to 71 - all on XSL style sheets. It's well worth the cheese! And amazon have it at discount!
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Summary: The essential quick reference guide to XML/XSLT
Review: I bought the first edition of this book and it was a good XML reference (as opposed to some of the giant XML books out there), and it even covered XSLT! But, I was really disappointed when they only covered the XSLT elements, and not XPath expressions. You cannot do XSLT justice w/o talking about XPath. The reason behind this is that XSLT adopted XPath about 2 months before the first edition was published, so it was probably too late to include the late-breaking information. The second edition has been updated w/expanded XSLT coverage to include XPath and common XSLT elemets (looping, numbering, output method). This edition is a must have for folks who are doing XML/XSLT work, but don't want to sift through Micheal Kay's canonical tome every time you need to lookup som syntax.
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Summary: You get what you pay for!
Review: I bought this book while just beginning XML development. I would say that this book is better suited for management types to read to get a high-level overview of the XML technology. It did not offer much as a "pocket reference". Most people will find money better spent on books describing the supporting technologies that go with XML, like XSLT, Schemas, and XLink.
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Summary: You get what you pay for!
Review: I bought this book while just beginning XML development. I would say that this book is better suited for management types to read to get a high-level overview of the XML technology. It did not offer much as a "pocket reference". Most people will find money better spent on books describing the supporting technologies that go with XML, like XSLT, Schemas, and XLink.
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Summary: For a reference, surprisingly useful...
Review: I bought this on a whim, but it's been rewarding. The only reading/learning I've done on XML has been through software APIs to parse it. Needless to say, I only understood the language from a syntactic point of view. This slim guide does a fine job as a reference, but it also useful for a breif tutorial/lesson/motivational example. Worth the dough.
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Summary: This is a beginners book...
Review: I can't possibly imagine that this book will be of any value to someone working with XML on a daily basis. It should be renamed to "a terse introduction to xml", as it is in no way a reference. This is based on the fact that I bought it to learn XML from, and it was quite good at teaching someone with no experience in XML whatsoever the basic concepts. If you are looking for a reference, look elsewhere. If you are just like me, and don't want to wade through hundreds of pages to get an idea of what it is all about, then you can perhaps consider it. Since it is so wrongly named, I give it three stars. But as an introduction it really deserves five.
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