Rating: 
Summary: Good book but no coverage for XML schemas
Review: I guess it's my fault for not checking closely enough, but this book is somewhat dated now (more than two years old as of this writing). It was somewhat of an impulse buy at the book store when it looked useful after a quick scan. It had a little "2nd Edition" banner across the front cover corner and I just assumed it included coverage of schemas. The coverage of XSLT and XML in a small format is quite useful. I'll probably buy the 3rd edition when it comes out--I would have given the book 4 or 5 stars two years ago when it was first published.
Rating:
Summary: Good book but no coverage for XML schemas
Review: I guess it's my fault for not checking closely enough, but this book is somewhat dated now (more than two years old as of this writing). It was somewhat of an impulse buy at the book store when it looked useful after a quick scan. It had a little "2nd Edition" banner across the front cover corner and I just assumed it included coverage of schemas. The coverage of XSLT and XML in a small format is quite useful. I'll probably buy the 3rd edition when it comes out--I would have given the book 4 or 5 stars two years ago when it was first published.
Rating:
Summary: not bad, but better books exist
Review: I read about 50% of this book and tried to work out the examples. However in the first chapter alone I found three errors. Two were corrected on the website, and I can't remember if the third one was too. This is a first edition, so watch out. XML development moves really fast, so a lot of things are no longer the same. The book explains things well and succinctly. But I would use it only after reading another book with more thorough treatment. I own several XML books, and quite frankly, I found that Professional XML (by Wrox) is the best book in the field at the moment. I confess to referring to this book still, but only after understanding the only concepts from Professional XML and other books. Consider buying this as a supplemental reference, but it should not be your first purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: More than just a pocket reference
Review: I thought that I would just give the bottom line on this great little XML Pocket Reference by Oreilly. This book is a perfect quick read for getting yourself up and running on XML as well as being a good quick reference. I bought the book expecting it to only be useful when looking up a XML term while programming and was pleasantly surprised to find that it doubled as a (bare minimum) tutorial for XML. This is a great and inexpensive book for the expert needing a reference guide that is easy to carry around as well as for a beginner that just wants to read a quick and uncomplicated guide to XML.
Rating:
Summary: Accurate, concise, comprehensive, cheap (in that order).
Review: I wish more reference books were written like this. The book contains everything you need to know to get started with XML and keep you going for a long time.Most of the book is a straight reference but it opens with a chapter that will enable you to develop a simple XML document. The examples are short but suffiient. I found the section on bad habits very useful (being guilty, as a HTML developer, of some). One day you might need a fifty dollar, thousand page tome but this book may put that day off for a surprisingly long time. Well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Inconsistent and non-functional
Review: I'm guessing that the high ratings were by friends of the author and publisher. Sorry Robert Eckstein, time to come clean! The very first example in the book won't work, no matter what you do, and Robert has a hard time keeping consistent names going between "Simple" and "Sample." If you're new to XML you will NEVER learn it with this book. Even being familiar with XML, you'll NEVER use it as a reference. This book has no value to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the $$, but dated. A good, cheap introduction.
Review: If you only need to know a little XML or you don't need to know it at all and are just curious, this is the perfect book, especially with its low price. XML is simple enough that 97 small pages can do it justice. Unfortunately, I don't find the book very practical. Its information was sufficient for my purpose, standardizing the online help format in an Internet game, to separate the help content from its style of presentation. If all you want to do is create XML data and use XSL to transform it into a new text format like HTML, this book is sufficient. But for anything beyond hobbyist pursuits, its lack of XML schemas is crippling. Schemas are a new feature, so this book doesn't cover them, but their function is so important (insuring integrity of information, not just formatting) that it has been quickly adopted. Unfortunately, O'Reilly doesn't have a more comprehensive XML book on the market, and from the looks of their web page, they're waiting for the standard to solidify before putting out anything more on XML. If you need XML for a serious business application, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: XGold in the Pocket
Review: It is really a nice book on XML from O'Reilly It covers the basics of XML and gives very nice overview of XML technologies. The best pocket reference for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: another good tome from o'reilly
Review: O'reilly books rarely miss the mark for being to the point references, and this is no exception. You'll get a better understanding of XML here than from books 10 times as long, and you get it without the geek humor. Plus it won't break your wallet. Without hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: One of the better pocket books
Review: These O'Reilly pocket books are sometimes known for cutting too many corners by not explaining everything or using too short of explanations. This is NOT one of those books, it does a good job of going through XML. But it does so more as a normal book does than trying to be an actually "small reference". This little book is good enough for you to actually learn XML by reading cover to cover. The concepts covered in it are: unlearning bad habits, xml overview, DTD, XSL, formatting, XLink and XPointers. The only bad thing I have to say is that I notices a couple table of contents items point to a page just before or after the subject they want to point you towards, but thats trivial anyways.
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