Amazon.co.uk Review
In 21 chapters, this book takes you all the way from "What is XML and why should I care?" to detailed code for rendering XML with XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). This is a hands-on tutorial, and by the end readers will know how to author and work with XML documents. Each chapter ends with exercises, questions and answers, to consolidate what has been learned.
The authors have divided the tutorial into three "weeks" of study. The first is introductory, and explains the make-up of an XML document, along with DTDs (Document Type Definitions). The next week looks at XML parsing, links and pointers, and displaying XML in Internet Explorer 5.0 and Mozilla, the first XML-compliant version of Netscape Navigator. Week three tackles programming the XML DOM (Document Object Model), using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and learning about XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). There is also a brief look at XML applications such as MathML and VML (Vector Markup Language).
This is a well-written tutorial, covers plenty of ground, and has lots of code examples. There is considerable depth and detail for the main topics, making this a valuable guide. The focus is on creating and viewing documents, and it is weak on other aspects such as using XML in multi-tier applications, or programming XML with Java. There is also a tendency to focus on Microsoft's implementation of XML in Internet Explorer 5.0, the first mainstream browser with substantial XML support. The pace is fast, and knowledge of HTML is assumed. --Tim Anderson
Product Description
Sams Teach Yourself XML is an easy-to-use tutorial that breaks down the task of learning XML into 21 focused lessons. Readers learn through clear explanations of concepts, structured step-by-step tasks, and abundant code samples. This book covers all aspects of using XML to publish a wide range of content on the Web.
