Special Edition Using XSLT

Rating:
Summary: Confusing sequence and typos characterize this book :-(
Review: Granted; XSLT and XPATH in particular aren't easy to cope with, but I did never find the "key" to the sequence of material in this book. Especially XPATH must be covered better, since XPATH are so central in XSLT.

When you also find typos, such as not well-formed XML in the examples, you waste time to figure out if the XML itself is correct or not.

In short, I didn't like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing sequence and typos characterize this book :-(
Review: Granted; XSLT and XPATH in particular aren't easy to cope with, but I did never find the "key" to the sequence of material in this book. Especially XPATH must be covered better, since XPATH are so central in XSLT.

When you also find typos, such as not well-formed XML in the examples, you waste time to figure out if the XML itself is correct or not.

In short, I didn't like this book.

Rating:
Summary: An informative and accessible overview
Review: Michael Floyd's Special Edition Using XSLT starts with an informative and accessible overview clearly explaining how XSLT fits into the bigger picture of the Extensible Stylesheet Language, and the differences between XSLT and XSL-FO. Special Edition Using XSLT then demonstrates practical examples of XSL transformations from XML to a variety of other useful formats including HTML, PDF, SVG and others. Later chapters discuss developer techniques for implementing XSLT within dynamic web environments including ASP and JSP. Flyod also covers debugging techniques and how XSLT relates to .NET. Highly recommended for beginning to intermediate level users, Special Edition Using XSLT then concludes with a useful reference section including detailed coverage of XSLT, XPath and XSL-FO. 480 pages.