Special Edition Using XML

Rating:
Summary: One XML book you don't need
Review: ...the book itself, for a second edition, has a revolting amount of errors. Gulbransen writes pretty well, but once you get to the XPath section, things go downhill. What really, really gets my goat is the publisher...charging ...for a book that obviously isn't edited, and then not even providing errata or help on their Web site. The main author, David Gulbransen, is not even listed in the Que list of authors. What's up with that?

Rating:
Summary: One XML book you don't need
Review: I agree with my fellow reviewers in that the examples are poorly written, and that the book itself, for a second edition, has a revolting amount of errors. Gulbransen writes pretty well, but once you get to the XPath section, things go downhill. What really, really gets my goat is the publisher...charging 50 bucks for a book that obviously isn't edited, and then not even providing errata or help on their Web site. The main author, David Gulbransen, is not even listed in the Que list of authors. What's up with that?

Rating:
Summary: Contains technical errors and omissions
Review: This book covers a wide breadth of topics in XML, without going thoroughly into the depths of any one topic. It often refers the reader to other materials for depth information. This is as it should be, but then the byline "The ONLY XML book you need" is somewhat dishonest marketing; they should remove it.

Second, _Using XML_ has quite a few typographical errors. So far I've found more than one per 10 pages, more than I'd expect for a Second Edition book.

Far worse, the book contains technical errors and is not clear on important points. As an example of the first grievance, p. 44 states that PCDATA cannot contain <, >, and / characters. In fact, it cannot contain "<" or "&"; ">" can legally appear, but should be escaped for compatibility with SGML, and "/" is just fine. An example on p. 94 puts comments before , yet the xml prolog must occur first in any document (even before whitespace). Mr. Gulbransen should know that. Page 91 uses an unparsed entity inline, violating Well-Formedness Constraint: Parsed Entity. And the example soc="123-00-1234" p. 83 violates Validity Constraint: ID, because a SSN is not a valid Name. Having found all these technical errors in the areas of XML I do know, how can I trust this book to correctly teach me things I don't know?

I also can't say the book is very clear in places where I want it to be. After pp. 130-133, I should know how to associate XML Schemas with XML documents. Instead, I can only blindly follow the example; I surely don't understand what is the role of each of the components, especially of the URI ending with "/contact".

Due to technical inaccuracies and occasional lack of clarity, I cannot recommend this book. I would like to find an XML reference which is similarly broad in scope, yet both clear and correct in its details.

Rating:
Summary: Deficient
Review: This book was written by six authors. It talks briefly about various XML technologies so you can know they exist. However, this book is deficient at teaching XML.

Rating:
Summary: Good & Bad
Review: Well, I was tempted to pick this book up for sometime. It seemed to read very well and is chocked full of helpful examples - at least to me. Eventually I gave in and bought it. Oh yah, there was no CD but hey, all that stuff is available on the Web right? Well apparently, not in this case. And especially for a book written by authors with such distinguished credentials - Mr. Gulbransen et al ... not to mention a reputable publishing house - QUE ( they have produced good works in the past ) I have been unable in my efforts to unturn a single piece of code for this book.

Ironically, the helpfull ( we want your feedback ) page that Que places in all it's books was , well useless. Someone named Candy Hall did reply, only if it was to say - No! So the email trail looked like this:

Attention:

Alexander Kachur

Hi Alexander,

I bought this wonderful book
done by Que entitled:

Using XML (second edition) by David Gulbransen, et al ...

Well, it didn't come with a CD

so naturally I was expecting to be directed
to some web page where I could download
the examples discussed in the book.

Can you help me out. and tell me just
what the URL is for that download page?

I visited your website but did not see any such
link ...

and when I sent an email off to Que Publishing
as identified in the forward for the book,

the response from Candy Hall was not
encouraging. This is what I got:

Thank you for your email about Special Edition Using XML. I'm glad you like
the book. Unfortunately the code for this book is not available for
download.
Candy Hall

Well, the declaration on the front of the book reads:
" The only xml book you need "
fine, it's a great book, but I need the code ...

If you can possibly point me to where I can
download this or email me a zipped archive
I would truly appreciate your help.

Thanking You
in advance

Dwight Lemaire

Alexander Kachur

Hi Alexander,

I bought this wonderful book
done by Que entitled:

Using XML (second edition) by David Gulbransen, et al ...

Well, it didn't come with a CD

so naturally I was expecting to be directed
to some web page where I could download
the examples discussed in the book.

Can you help me out. and tell me just
what the URL is for that download page?

I visited your website but did not see any such
link ...

and when I sent an email off to Que Publishing
as identified in the forward for the book,

the response from Candy Hall was not
encouraging. This is what I got:

Thank you for your email about Special Edition Using XML. I'm glad you like
the book. Unfortunately the code for this book is not available for
download.
Candy Hall

Well, the declaration on the front of the book reads:
" The only xml book you need "
fine, it's a great book, but I need the code ...

If you can possibly point me to where I can
download this or email me a zipped archive
I would truly appreciate your help.

Thanking You
in advance

Dwight Lemaire

............. Well, Alexander never answered because
I kept getting Mail Administrator responses saying the
plug was pulled on his email.

In spite of the apparently all negative reviews on-line
about things like content, and gross inaccuraies, I find
there are salvaging comments to make about this book.
Essentially, it works for me .... however, there is no Code
to be found for it anywhere. Gulbransen cannot be contacted.
Que denies any code is available for this book. Well, what did
they use to put it together anyway? This spoils everyone's
reputation for excellence in providing information and follow-ups doesn't it? In conclusion, Gulbransen and el should be shamed into leaving this work as is. Que should be shamed of providing no support ( inspite of the friendly teaser page).
Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame.

At times like these, one really appreciates an Oreilly Text. I'll never stray again ..