Out-dated
Author makes a good point from the start. He notes that since the web public will take time to convert to XML-ready browsers, all works should be converted to HTML until technologies play a catch-up. Author's method for this HTML conversion is done through a Microsoft-DOS based utility called "MSXSL." Well, Guess what? Microsoft has taken this tool off the market, probably to promote it's Internet Explorer 5.0 browser which has built-in XML parser. But without the "MSXSL" examples starting from chapter 2 are not possible. It's a pity, since his writing on XML are well written. But it's just too hard to overcome the frustration of not being able apply your knowledge. I will return this book and use the money to buy a book with examples of IE5 - the 'bleeding' edge of technology.
Good intro to XML, not so hot on XSL
I couldn't make much sense of XML until I read this book. It's well-written and easy to follow. Unfortunately the subject matter changes so quickly that the chapter on XSL is already woefully out of date and is based on a W3C working draft (WD) of early 1998. It bears little resemblance to the current WD or the XSL implemention in IE5. However its still one of the best and most current texts available.
Good Book for XML Programmers
I recommend this book for everyone. There is clarity in the way it deals with fundamentals and at the same time gives you depth. I do agree that XSL has changed, but this sure is worth adding to your library
Best XML book I've encountered so far!
I saw that other people made some comments about the XSL not being mentioned all too often in this book. That's true. But this book goes way beyond XSL and that is important, because XML is more than converting XML into HTML.I can recommend this book to everybody who wants to understand XML quickly. This book guides you from the basics to advanced topics such as the DTD in a clear and straightforward manner.
(an aside for XSL users and a resource)
>>Good Intro to XML, >>But don't buy if your interested in XSL. XSL is still a draft standard, and Microsoft's implementation is not strictly compliant with the more recent releases of the draft. Writing usable XSL is a nontrivial task (eg. for a large website dynamically generated from streams of XML data).
The author of this book maintains an XML website (updates it daily, even) called Cafe con Leche. http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/
As for the book, I flipped through it and put it back on the shelf -- XML is still embryonic and seems most usable for EDI, information management, and forcing office software goliaths to use (naively) parseable file formats. XML for the web is unlikely to be useful until better client-side XSL processing can be implemented.
Since the book wasn't bad, just ordinary, I gave it the average (4 stars). I had no opinion on it.
