Learning XML eBook: Erik T. Ray: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Amazon.co.uk Review

Although Learning XML covers XML with a broad brush, it nevertheless presents the key elements of the technology with enough detail to familiarise the reader with the 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 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 graphical illustrations, tables and code to demonstrate concepts along the way, keeping the reader engaged and on track. Ray also gets into a deep discussion of programming XML utilities with Perl.

Learning XML is a highly readable introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and Web technologies, and it meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad perspective of XML and its potential. --Stephen W Plain

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'Learning XML does what it sets out to do: provides an introduction to SML concepts and XML document authoring and the related standards and, as such, represents an ideal starting point for anyone using XML.' IT Training, August 2001 'O'Reilly books have a good record. Well-know for their 'in a Nutshell series and their zoological cover illustrations, I've always found them highly satisfactory. There cannot be many works that be referred to familiarly as, for instance, The Camel Book. Well now we have The Newly-Hatched Chick book. From the title of this one I had somehow (wrongly) expected an XML primer covering only basics, but this is a thorough treatment of the subject. The book's general layout conforms to what we have become familiar with in O'Reilly'. The index is excellent and there are appendices giving a glossary and lists of standards, tools, books and resources and where to find them. Learning XML, very readable as well as being a good reference, is strongly recommended.' - Sandy McCourt, uk-bug developer's magazine, July/August 2001 'As you would expect from this publisher, the text is pleasantly presented in a way that makes it comfortable to read. I settled down to read it on a three-hour coach journey to visit my aging parents (the relevance of this is that, like reading in the bath, I had few resources other than my eyes with which to understand what the author was writing about.) What I particularly appreciate is the way the author uses practical examples (oh, and read some of the text in these, it can be hilarious) and then uses an endnote style commentary to highlight the important elements. I find this much better than the style of perverting the commenting facility of a language. For example, in chapter 5, Document Models: A Higher Level of Control he use the 'Barebones DocBook' DTD as his final consolidating example of DTDs. The approach in this book works well with the way I like to read to learn. I would definitely recommend this book to programmers wanting to get to grips with XML.' - Francis Glassborow, Cvu, April 2001

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

Interesting book, on an exciting topic 9 Mar 2001

By A. J. Trickett

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is another fine book in the ORA tradition. The book does not try to be a vast reference guide, but a compact introduction to all the major topics. As such it's an excellent introduction to the topic, and well worth reading.

Like other ORA "Learning" books that I have read it does at times labour points, and have too much redundant code, both excluding this, it's a worth while book.

Once you have learnt XML you are probably not going to use this book as a reference books, as it is not appendix rich, but while you are learning it's very good.

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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

This book lacks a practical step-by-step approach. 21 Sep 2001

By Robin Clarke

This book does not lead you through XML in a practical way. XML can be a difficult technology to get your head around - this book does not present the subject in such a way that lets you try examples and then move on. It will probably sell because its an O'Reilly title; however I'm used to more real world material from them.

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Amazon.com: 40 reviews

110 of 116 people found the following review helpful

Suggested New Title: Anatomy of XML 2 Mar 2003

By Jase T. Wolfe - Published on Amazon.com

By page 177 I realized that I was never going to touch a keyboard while reading this book. I can't speak for everyone, but when I pick up a book expecting to learn the topic, I need theory, reference, examples and structured "assignments". This title offers the first three, but I never get to apply what I am learning hands-on in a graduated fashion. When I am finished, I have little more than the ability to recognize the components of XML. Just because you can recognize all the foods in a grocery store, and know the origins of all the spices on your spice rack, doesn't mean you can cook; the same principal applies here. I am fully aware that XML is comprised of many different elements, and many of the XML development environments are very expensive, but many are free and could have been used to teach the concept clearer.

The title also has many errors, so the errata list on the publisher's web site is important. The book does not include any of the source code, so if you want that, you have to download it. Even then, it is not complete and file titles in the book do not always match the provided code file names.

If you are looking for a hands-on book to learn XML, this isn't the title. If you know XML and are looking for a reference, again - not for you. However, if you are interested in it from more of an administrative overview position, then the title is worth the read. It can provide many answers and give a good base of information without the need to actually write any XML on your own.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful

Good transition book from HTML, CSS --> XML 13 Jun 2001

By Tuesday Frase - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Paperback

SHORT: I highly recommend this book if you know HTML and have some exposure to CSS; it's a good intro book to XML, which is what it's intended to be. The end result is that you'll know enough to get started with more technical books, and where to go for available web resources.

LONGER: The reasons that other people have given for not liking this book are some of the same reasons that I find it useful. I'm pretty well-versed in HTML and have some basic understanding of JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets. This book goes into detail about both and gives comparisons and evolutions that involve XML. I'm about halfway through it at the moment, and it's giving me a clear, not-to-technical view of XML. The other books I have go straight into the code, telling me HOW but not really explaining the WHY of everything. That's what makes this book great to me. The first half deals with explanation and presentation, while the last half is more code-heavy. The two other books I have strive to be highly technical, but proved to be a bit overwhelming for me as a complete newbie to the subject of XML.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

Excellent book for programmers using XML 23 Aug 2001

By Alex J. Avriette - Published on Amazon.com

I am a C, Unix Shell, and Perl programmer. This means that I have a lot of interaction with XML.

I'm not really interested in sitting down and learning XML because I wouldnt actually go and write it myself. There are plenty of perl modules (XML::Parser, XML::Twig, and so on) that will do that for me. However, I wanted to have some understanding of what XML actually was, and how to read it if I were presented in it.

This book started very slow and very easily, and moved into some more advanced (if a little more dry) subject matter. The author uses witty, enjoyable examples, and is very clear at all times about what is being explained.

I would recommend this to most programmers who want to just "know what XML is all about," as it isnt particularly technical (if you are just skimming), and its technical enough for people to get into if need be. It also covers most topics very thoroughly.

Another gem from OReilly.

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