Average
I'll keep this brief. Most of the reviewers claim that this is either a great easy-to-follow book or it's too difficult to understand for beginners. I'd say that the truth is somewhere in between. It's not hard to follow, but it's not exceptionally clear. Fortunately, the examples are pretty good. Unfortunately, the book is definitely not comprehensive. You'll learn quite a bit about XML and XSL, but you'll have to seek out a more advanced reference if you plan on doing this stuff professionally. If you want to learn the basics of XML, go with "XML Weekend Crash Course". If you already know the basics and want a more comprehensive reference, go with "XML in a Nutshell". This isn't a bad book, but there are better choices out there.
XML presented clear and concise
XML by Example describes XML (Extensible Markup Language) along with Document Type Definitions. This book has great code samples and understandable explanations. If you have no idea how XML works, XML by Example is a good beginning to the syntax and structure. Marchal has written a fine book. It has something to offer anyone curious about XML.
Find a Better Book
I am well grounded in HTML and CSS, but I found the book to be confusing. Most of what I didn't like about this book stems from the fact that there are no exercises, chapter summaries, and the "examples" weren't very clear to me. There is probably a better book.
Great Way To Learn XML
'XML By Example' is a great book if you are looking to learn XML for the first time or freshen up if you haven't used the technology for some time. Having never used XML when I got this book, I quickly dove in and was able to grasp what XML is used for, what makes it's simplicity such a necessity, and how it is used in the real world. After reading this book you should be able to read an XML document, understand what a schema/dtd is, understand how XSL is used to take XML and generate HTML from it, as well as be able to write your own XML files.
In the 1990s, 2 of the most important technologies were the release of Java by Sun and the birth of XML. Both inventions have changed the way programming and data manipulation/transaction are handled in the world and this book is a great introduction to learn how to use XML in your every day world. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
**** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Not the Right Book
I read the first 6 chapters of the book in 12 hours then I stopped and gave up from it, because I got lost and confused, and I feel like I need much more than that to know what's there in the XML world, well the book name is learn by example but actually it is not that, it is "get confused by examples", the examples are so easy to look at but after reading them and read the little tiny bit explanation about them if any, you don't know what is going on there and don't know what is the point, don't know why we want to do that, why we need that from the first place ??
I'm not a new programmer but I just started learning XML and I really don't need a book from the very beginning but still I grabbed this book because I thought It will get me somewhere by practicing with the examples,
there isn't enough examples showing clarity
After that I started reading XML Bible 2nd addition, it has a lot of information and it has a lot more details about each topic compared to this book but still difficult to read and has lots of Errata !!!.
I'm still looking for a book in XML that makes me really understand Schemas, namespaces, XSL, and XSLT, Xlink, relations between them and CSS,
I'm using xmlSpy, and there you will find everything there regarding XML and how to make XSL, XSD, Schemas and DTD then the XML files and XSL and XSLT which really need to understand how they all work together but you find nothing about them in XML by example book, I'm not saying the book should explain xmlSpy but you have to know all these technologies to work on XML project.
I couldn't give this book 2 stars because I can't recommend it to anyone. I can't understand why others can give it 5 stars, I don't believe they can do something with xml just by reading this book!!!
In the end if you think you want to start with this book then don't, read w3c.School and get all the definition for XML technologies then get a much more detailed book for it which I'm still looking for.
(67 reviews)
