Xml Complete (Mcgraw-Hill Complete Series)

Rating:
Summary: I renamed this book "XML Complete CRAP"
Review: After reading through this book, I was so thoroughly disgusted that I took the time to print out a new title, "XML Complete CRAP", and tape it to the spine of this book. I even matched the color and the font exactly! Why did I spend an hour of my time doing this? Because I wanted to save my co-workers the effort of pulling this ridiculous book off our bookshelf and opening it. This book is a "complete" joke. The writing is muddled, the layout and font are awful, and the examples are repeatedly copied and pasted to fluff up the book and make it look respectable. I would be astonished if there was a worse book out there.

Rating:
Summary: I renamed this book "XML Complete CRAP"
Review: After reading through this book, I was so thoroughly disgusted that I took the time to print out a new title, "XML Complete CRAP", and tape it to the spine of this book. I even matched the color and the font exactly! Why did I spend an hour of my time doing this? Because I wanted to save my co-workers the effort of pulling this ridiculous book off our bookshelf and opening it. This book is a "complete" joke. The writing is muddled, the layout and font are awful, and the examples are repeatedly copied and pasted to fluff up the book and make it look respectable. I would be astonished if there was a worse book out there.

Rating:
Summary: It's a mirage
Review: I read this book cover to cover before I took out the CD. What could be simpler - just download the parser and off you go. No it didn't work like that. The parser isn't on the Microsoft site in that form and without it the book is a waste of time. I find it amazing that a book like this can be written that fails on the most fundamental point - the basic tools aren't included.

Rating:
Summary: It's a mirage
Review: I read this book cover to cover before I took out the CD. What could be simpler - just download the parser and off you go. No it didn't work like that. The parser isn't on the Microsoft site in that form and without it the book is a waste of time. I find it amazing that a book like this can be written that fails on the most fundamental point - the basic tools aren't included.

Rating:
Summary: BAD
Review: This book is unimaginably bad. It's so bad, in fact, that I have to laugh. It does get a good start, moving through 15 pages of introductory material, then gets bogged down in so much bureaucratic (not technical) terminology that it seems the author doesn't even understand it. Anyone who knows Java can look at his listings and know that they won't compile as printed, perhaps the author doesn't understand Java either. And the wasted space... Oh man! Entire listings are pointlessly explained line by line, with each showing up on a longer and longer listing. And how about those screen shots-- line drawings with courier font for buttons? Is this a first draft or something? Steven Holzner should never be allowed to write another computer book.

Rating:
Summary: With JAVA background - you should be fine.
Review: With some java background, using XML Complete to learn XML is not a bad idea. The programs are well written. I do have some compilation errors with some of the programs; but with a little fix you're good to go.