- Paperback: 218 pages
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (2 May 2002)
- Language French
- ISBN-10: 059600205X
- ISBN-13: 978-0596002053
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 17.7 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
576,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28 in Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Programming > Languages > Java > XML
- #50 in Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Programming > Languages > XML
- #56 in Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Programming > Languages > Perl
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Perl and XML shows how to combine two key Web technologies. Perl is a great language for server-side Web scripting, but XML parsers are generally written in Java or C++. Even so, Perl is everywhere, its strong text processing features make it a good partner for XML, and the chances are that Perl developers will need to work with XML sooner or later. Written with lively good humour, this title explains how to parse, validate and generate XML using a variety of techniques. It does not teach Perl, but does include an excellent short introduction to XML itself.
After setting the scene, the authors set out the basics of XML parsing and writing, using the XML::Parser and XML::Writer modules. This is a good place to start, but the book makes it clear that the future of Perl and XML is in standard interfaces like SAX, which is the subject of another chapter. There is also an explanation of tree processing using XML::Simple or the standard DOM. (Document Object Model). The last chapters cover other XML technologies including XPath, XSLT and SOAP.
Packed with plenty of example code, this title is very much a guide rather than a reference. It does a great job of presenting XML from a Perl perspective, showing why it is useful and how to go about finding and installing the right modules. A couple of short but complete examples at the end help to put it all together, and there are lots of handy tips and warnings sprinkled throughout the book.--Tim Anderson
http://it-enquirer.com, May 2002
"The book is a valuable addition to a Perl programmer's library."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a basic introduction to how Perl handles XML and people looking for a in depth book on Perl and XML will be dissapointed. That does not mean that the book is not good, because it is. It has easy explanations and it covers a wide range of different Perl XML modules and gives examples on how to use them, but since it is only a thin book it does not cover as much as one might like.
If you are a Perl programmer looking for a book to give you a quick overview of what is available then this book is for you. But if you are looking for larger examples and in depth explanations this is problably not the book for you.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
50 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Another Perl book? Yes, and it's a good one, too.
6 Jun 2002
Format:Paperback
I am a professional developer, working mostly with Perl. I work in the field of biology and bioinformatics, but have spent the last 8 years working as a web and database Internet developer. And, I own practically every O'Reilly Perl book ever published (not that I necessarily think they're all worth buying). So, now that you know where I'm coming from...
If you are preparing to do a serious amount of XML development, and you're in the process of determining a) which Perl XML modules on CPAN you want to use, and b) how to use them; and, you don't have a whole lot of time to spend tracking down the sometimes-hard-to-find documentation on these modules; then buying this book is a no-brainer. It covers all the major XML modules, how to use then and really helps you figure out when to use the different modules.
Even if you're not new to XML and Perl, this book would serve as an excellent refresher course on what XML tools are available out there for you... Maybe you haven't looked at your code in awhile, or want to update it to use a newer module from CPAN? Or, maybe you're looking for a better way to do it? Then, this book would definitely help you out.
While a fan of O'Reilly books in general, I'll be the first to admit some of them are more useful than others. I have to give this book a very solid rating, as it's actually useful, comprehensive and very well presented. I find myself cracking it open all the time, especially as my utilization of XML has grown more complicated. It has definitely earned its place in my Aqua Perl book collection.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Good book, but lots of errors in the code
28 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
I liked the way this book was structured - it was a quick read over a thanksgiving family visit, and it gave a good overview of what XML is and what XML isn't, and what tools are available already in Perl to use it. I particularly liked the middle of the book, and how it dealt with trees and event streams. First there was in short intro chapter on why you'd want to parse XML as an event stream, and some simple modules that give back event streams. Then the next chapter would be a longer one on SAX - the definitive way to do event streams. Same thing with trees and DOM. It ends with some examples of real-life XML processing, such as consuming and producing RSS feeds. The book also has the best description of Unicode I've ever read, and did it with just a few pages.
What ticked me off about this book were the egregious errors in the sampe code. The very first piece of code they show in chapter 3 is a 100-line XML parser that doesn't need any support modules. The problem is that it doesn't recognize any XML because the regular expressions are wrong, which was pretty confusing for me (I'm relatively new to Perl, so I figured they were just "another way of doing it" that I didn't understand). I downloaded the examples frm the O'Reily website, and they're wrong there too - so it's not just a printing error. Worse, the example XML file I tried to test the parser on was also from the tarfile I downloaded - but it was invalid XML! (example 3.4). So I was trying to learn XML with a sample parser that didn't work, on invalid XML! This is not the quality I am expecting from O'Reilly!
(In fairness, both of these errors were in the online errata, but I'm not sure if they were corrected in the 7/04 reprint)
There are other errors in the code too - so be sure and check back with the errata page if you're going to seriously use the code. If they'd run their sample code before printing, I'd probably give this book a better rating.
What ticked me off about this book were the egregious errors in the sampe code. The very first piece of code they show in chapter 3 is a 100-line XML parser that doesn't need any support modules. The problem is that it doesn't recognize any XML because the regular expressions are wrong, which was pretty confusing for me (I'm relatively new to Perl, so I figured they were just "another way of doing it" that I didn't understand). I downloaded the examples frm the O'Reily website, and they're wrong there too - so it's not just a printing error. Worse, the example XML file I tried to test the parser on was also from the tarfile I downloaded - but it was invalid XML! (example 3.4). So I was trying to learn XML with a sample parser that didn't work, on invalid XML! This is not the quality I am expecting from O'Reilly!
(In fairness, both of these errors were in the online errata, but I'm not sure if they were corrected in the 7/04 reprint)
There are other errors in the code too - so be sure and check back with the errata page if you're going to seriously use the code. If they'd run their sample code before printing, I'd probably give this book a better rating.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Good Overview Of XML And Supporting Perl Modules
14 Feb 2004
Format:Paperback
I have wanted to learn about XML, but I found the pure XML books dry and too theoretical. However, putting XML in the context of something familiar, i.e. Perl, made it much more accessible. This book gives a nice overview of XML parsing using event based and tree based parsers that are available as Perl modules. The book presents SAX and DOM standards compliant modules as well as modules with more Perlish interfaces, e.g. XML::Grove and XML::Twig. It discusses the pros and cons of event vs. tree parsing of XML as well as a few advanced technologies such as database integration and SOAP. The only knock I have on the book is that the examples are a bit contrived and do not show how to solve meaningful problems.
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