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XML @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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XML Index - XML Book :
Learning XML
by Erik T. Ray Paperback - 350 pages 1st edition (February 2001) O'Reilly & Associates ISBN: 0596000464 Dimensions (in inches): 0.77 x 9.18 x 7.02 Although Learning XML covers XML rather broadly, it nevertheless presents the key elements of the technology with enough detail to familiarize the reader with this crucial markup language. This guide is brief enough to tackle in a weekend. Author Erik T. Ray begins with an excellent summary of XML's history as an outgrowth of SGML and HTML. He outlines very clearly the elements of markup, demystifying concepts such as attributes, entities, and namespaces with numerous clear examples. To illustrate a real-world XML application, he gives the reader a look at a document written in DocBook--a publicly available XML document type for publishing technical writings--and explains the sections of the document step by step. A more simplified version of DocBook is used later in the book to illustrate transformation--a powerful benefit of XML. The all-important Document Type Definition (DTD) is covered in depth, but the still-unofficial alternative, XML Schema, is only briefly addressed. The author makes liberal use of graphics, tables, and code to demonstrate concepts along the way, keeping the reader engaged and on track. Ray also goes deep into some discussion of programming XML utilities with Perl. Learning XML is a very readable introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and Web technologies. It meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad perspective of XML and its potential. --Stephen W. Plain Learning XML covered: • XML overview • XPointer • XLink • XHTML • Presentation with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) • Document Type Definitions (DTDs) • XML Schemas • Transformation with XSLT • Internationalization • Simple API for XML (SAX) Book Description: The arrival of support for XML--the Extensible Markup Language--in browsers and authoring tools has followed a long period of intense hype. Major databases, authoring tools (including Microsoft's Office 2000), and browsers are committed to XML support. Many content creators and programmers for the Web and other media are left wondering, "What can XML and its associated standards really do for me?" Getting the most from XML requires being able to tag and transform XML documents so they can be... Customer Reviews Reviewer: Dean Wette from St. Louis, MO USA I needed a quick, well-structured intro to XML for a consulting assignment. This book serves that purpose well. It covers many of the important and relevant XML technologies, and provides enough depth to get started in each. The sections on XPath and XSLT are particularly helpful. The book looses a review star, however, for its poor XML Programming section. DOM is barely mentioned, and SAX is demonstrated using Perl. Perl is great for some things, but I think it's a poor choice here. Java is far more mainstream and easier to read for XML programming, and should have been used instead. Brett Mclaughlin's book, Java and XML, provides a much better choice for introductions to SAX and DOM. Reviewer: largeyarbles from Manheim, PA United States Although I have yet to read this book cover to cover, I've paged through it and read snippets from each chapter. Learning XML gives a great overview of XML, DTDs, TLDs, SAX, DOM, etc. and explains the theory and ideas behind XML and why it's so great. If you want a casual intro to XML and don't feel the need to spend $60 on a 1,500 page WROX book, this is the perfect book for you. Reviewer: Stephen R. Holmlund from Montara, CA As someone who works in marketing and understands HTML, WML, and CSS, I needed a good overview that would let me start to get my head around XML and its related acronyms. I think this book delivered on that pretty well. It's not really as long as 350 pages since there are a couple of long code listings. One thing that is very nice is the clean typography and layout of the O'Reilly books. The other publishers could take a lesson from them. When dealing with new, complicated subjects, whitespace really is your friend. I agree with some of the other criticisms in previous reviews but for the most part, this is a good first book. Reviewer: Eric Dubuis from NJ United States The book "Learning XML" by Eric T. Ray is a basic introduction to XML. It covers the markup elements, links, presentation, data type definition, transformations and programming for XML. The book is truly for the novice. The very basic concepts are introduced and illustrated in great detail. The text is written quite well, and the illustrations do help to understand the presented concepts and examples. The first chapters on the core concepts, the markup elements, links and presentation in XML describe all syntax elements using a graphical syntax illustration. The components of syntax elements are clearly labeled and referred to in the text. The application of all elements is further illustrated with simple examples that concentrate on the essence of the different markup elements. The chapter on DTDs is equally well written and DTD concepts and syntax elements are introduced in the same careful way as the markup elements in the first chapters. I would have expected more than 4 pages on XML schema. Yes, it's still a draft, but the basic behavior and structure are pretty well defined by now, and parsers accepting XML schema are available. The text has a couple of chapters and sections that disappointed me. The chapter on transformations isn't structured as well as the rest of the book and contains a 20 page long, undocumented and uncommented example of an XSLT transformation program. This example has not been written by the author, and that might be reason it is not explained in detail, but at least a few comments would have been nice. The last chapter on programming for XML is the most disappointing one. The elements of an XML processor are only introduced very briefly. The chapter does contain a Perl example of a XML syntax checker but I don't think that developing such low level functionality is the most important aspect of programming for XML. A more detailed coverage of the APIs SAX and DOM would probably have been more important. Overall, this is a good introduction or XML authors. The basic concepts are presented out nicely and the illustrations are very helpful. The book is not a great reference if you plan to learn how to write programs for XML. |
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