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XML @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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XML Index - XML Book :
XML Programming (Core Reference)
by R. Allen Wyke, Sultan Rehman, Brad Leupen, Ash Rofail Hardcover - 800 pages 1st edition (January 2002) Microsoft Press ISBN: 0735611858 Dimensions (in inches): 2.08 x 9.58 x 7.48 XML PROGRAMMING is the best place to find detailed instructions and insights on how to take advantage of XML and the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment to create extensible, end-to-end applications. Taking an architectural approach, the authors of the book carefully describe the XML hooks to be found in the next generation of Visual Studio and the .NET platform, plus how XML works with other Microsoft products such as Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft BizTalk(tm) Server 2000. Customer Reviews Reviewer: David Jung from West Covina, CA USA I normally refrain from recommending Microsoft Press books because so many of them are printed versions of their online help or MSDN content. If you want to learn XML from the ground up, this book isn't for you. If you're familiar with the concepts of XML and have wanted more clarification on how to use XML as a tool within your applications, then you should look at this book. It does offer decent explanations of XML and XML technology, and it does offer examples in VB, C++, and Java, but code itself isn't well documented. There is mention of the .Net Framework and Visual Studio .Net, but the book was obviously written before either of them went "gold", so don't expect to see examples of XML Web Services using .Net. All in all, its a good reference book and worth looking into getting (as long as you don't pay full retail price for it.) Reviewer: working_on_it from Calgary, AB I agree with the previous reviewer who describes this as a "rushed-to-press contentless tome". I bought this book because other recent MS Press volumes are so good (Richter, Petzold). This one, however, has more in common with the slapdash Wrox junk with the yearbook covers. Specifically, what you'll find in this book is a poorly written, high-level, already out-of-date overview of various XML-related technologies. If, by some weird chance, you're actually looking for information on, oh, "XML Programming," -- code snippets aside, it just isn't in here. I don't know what the reviewer who said it got him/her "up to coding quickly" is talking about. The book in fact has little to do with programming. Finally, I note that the lead author's bio mentions that he has authored 12 technical books. Lord preserve us from these jargon-spewing, dozen-tome-authoring hacks, and God bless the likes of Charles Petzold, who has written two books on programming in 20 years -- two elegant classics. It's time that tech publishers require a great deal more of their authors. It isn't enough to know how to code or yatter in techspeak. If you're writing a book, shouldn't you know how to... write? Reviewer: Bryan Geary from Buford, GA United States XML Programming was nearly the best book on XML programming I have found. Here are the pluses. 1) It does a very good job of taking you through the basics fast and gets into specifics of coding quickly. It walks you through the process of building real applications using XML as their foundation. 2) The book covers more than the Microsoft angle. It does show some Linux and Java examples, although it definitely emphasizes the Microsoft solutions. The reason I didn't rate this book higher was one thing that just kept annoying me throughout the book. It reads like they took an old book and threw in some material on newer XML specifications and Microsoft products, without updating the older material. Some examples of this are: 1) They talk about the MSXML parser, but the last version they cover is 3.0 (even though 4 is included on the accompanying CD) and MSXML 4 has been out for quite some time, certainly longer than .NET. Yet there are entire chapters covering .NET and mentions of it throughout the book (mostly regarding Beta 2). 2) They show XML Notepad as an editor. Microsoft has discontinued the XML Notepad and the link in the book goes to a page that no longer exists. 3) Other links in the book do not exist and the tools have been renamed and thereby are harder to find on Microsoft's site. The other primary minus for me was the author's assumption regarding your programming background. The authors use Visual Basic, ASP, Java, SQL and C++ without always explaining the code (Java and C++ are in the minority; VB, ASP and SQL are widespread). Most of the people reading this may not be familiar with all of these languages and thereby get a little lost in some of the examples. So, if you're already comfortable with Microsoft programming and want to get up to speed quickly on XML, I would say this book is worth your while, but be ready for web links that don't work and check the products they refer to for newer versions. If you're not comfortable with SQL and VB at a minimum, start there and then come back to this one or a similar title. Reviewer: A reader from Sydney, Australia I don't know what the reviewer from San Jose was thinking, but I believe that Brad Leupen, et al have written a great book on XML programming for newcomers. I bought this book with almost no understanding of XML and so the "basic basics" of XML were great for me. I come from a database background and have very little experience with web programming. XML Programming has taken me from supernewbie to XML Programmer very quickly. The book was easy to read, clear and concise.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn XML. |
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