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Rating: 
Summary: Decisions, Decisions.......
Review: Cheryl Kirk, aka, Lou K., wrote a review entitled, "I agree with the bad reviews - and I'm one of the authors!" on March 12, 2002.
Her review was more of a slam against her co-author, Natanya Pitts.
Read all of the editorial reviews and customer reviews before making your decision on whether or not to purchase this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The best ever
Review: I review and found the book is extremely useful for experienced programmer. The structure is confused but when I get used to, it became handful reference.
Rating: 
Summary: This book gives me no results-I'm at page 300!
Review: No visual help, no logical sequencing, no decent results, and I'm almost halfway through the da*n book! It's almost as if the authors are forcing us to read the entire book before answering questions that should have been revealed in chapter one and two! Reading a book from end to end is important, but wastng our time by structuring the book so we HAVE to read from cover to cover is wasting our time. I regret buying this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book gives me no results-I'm at page 300!
Review: No visual help, no logical sequencing, no decent results, andI'm almost halfway through the ... book! It's almost as if the authors are forcing us to read the entire book before answering questions that should have been revealed in chapter one and two! Reading a book from end to end is important, but wastng our time by structuring the book so we HAVE to read from cover to cover is wasting our time. I regret buying this book.
Rating:
Summary: very bad book
Review: This book is long and boring. It keeps promising that it will show you good stuff but after 400 pages I am still not sure what it wants to explain. The first three chapters are an idiotic attempt to explain the difference between XML and HTML. Then at the end of each it always says it will become clear if you keep reading. Apparently the authors are not knowledgable enough to write a technical book and they haven't grasped the essense of XML. Sure they can write a lot but all the pages are made of long paragraphes that don't make much sence. I will be much better of just reading the spec. This book is a waste of time and money. My impression is every so called black book is poorly written. I give it one star because this is the lowest rating I could give.
Rating:
Summary: Decisions, Decisions.......
Review: This book is out of print, and it should be. It's an awful book, and I should know - I helped write it! If you are looking for a good book on XML, you could either try the second printing of this book, or a ton of others that are out now. I'm writing this review to tell everyone and anyone to save their money. (If you look at the other books I've written, you'll realize I write great books, and this was just a blip in the continum.)So why was it so bad? Let me tell you the truth, without making excuses. This book was written a LONG time ago, so it is VERY out of date. And I was a contract author that came in at the last minute, when the book, I presume, was in jeopardy. Another writer had jumped ship, and frankly I think the book had more problems before I even got involved. Why the lead author Natanya Pitts, didn't complete the book, I'll never know. But she didn't and I was hired and told to write more than 400 pages on the technology that had yet to have to be finalized. There were few if any tools for XML, Microsoft had yet to even release their parser, and the original XML spec hadn't even been finalized. And I kept telling the lead editor at the time, it was just too soon to write a 'Black Book' on a technology that in essence was still being thought up. With the XML spec not even finalized, and other components like XLINK, XPATH, etc. not even part of the equation at the time, there really wasn't much to write about. Then I tried to contact the lead author, get copies of the chapters she had written, and confer with her about the book, but to no avail. I never heard from her at all. When I did get her chapters thru the editor, it was only after I had turned the chapters I was assigned. That's why the book repeats itself so much, and is so dijointed. I basically had a list of chapters, and that was it. I didn't even get the TOC until much later! Then the editor kept telling me, write more, regardless of whether there was anything to write about. And there wasn't much to write about at the time, so it was a real stretch. In essence I was told write this many pages, regardless, and to do it within less than 2 months. I learned a great deal about computer book publishing with this project. It wasn't about quality, it was about quantity. It wasn't about the reader, it was about getting a book out so the publisher could take advantage of the tide of interest in XML. From what I understand, however, things have changed at Coriolis and they realize their missteps. But I still see other publishers, like Wrox, that seem to take that same approach, and I think it really hurts the computer book industry, but more importantly, hurts the reader. I wouldn't give up on Coriolis (or any other publisher for that matter), since some of the Black Books are actually very good. But I would take the time to really check out a book before buying it, since series books aren't always written or controlled by the same editors or authors and quality can vary greatly. What I would do, however, is return bad books not only to the bookstore, but also the publisher directly. They need to know WHY a book didn't sell and what readers expect. Oftentimes publishers think a book fails because of other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the book. And until readers STOP buying ...thrown-together books, publishers will never learn! I certainly learned NEVER to work on a failing project like this one. My other books all have 5 star ratings and dealing with irate readers on this book (mainly because the lead author failed to even respond to anyone's email) made me realize how important the reader truly is...
Rating:
Summary: The best XML book available today.
Review: This is an excellent book on XML for the programmer who needs to know how to implement XML and it is also good for the layperson who wants to learn about XML. Perhaps not the best book for beginners, but I think the assumption is that if you know about XML, you are not one. The book is readable, well designed, and best of all they use my favorite format: They discuss a particular feature until every point is clear, then show an example in the 'Immediate Solutions' section. You can actually learn XML by reading this book and trying the examples. What a concept! I have read and returned a few XML books by the so-called masters, including the one by Goldfarb, and found them to be poorly written, obscure, or overpriced marketing tools(e.g. the XML Handbook.) The XML Black Book is the only XML book currently available that won't make you feel like you wasted your money.
Rating:
Summary: Very disjointed
Review: This is not a good learning book or a good book to use as a reference. Each chapter was very disjointed and hard to follow. The examples and explaination were extremly lacking. The only reason I was able to put the parts together was by finding a web based tutorial that explained the concept better. I would not waste your money on this one.
Rating:
Summary: indispensible problem solver?
Review: this is the book i use to prop my monitor up to the correct height. thus, it did solve one problem.
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