Poorly conceived and useless
This book has nothing to ofer. If you need some pointers on creating XSL style sheets then keep looking. There is no one practical example even for basic stuff like using variable and parameters for sorting and filtering. Most examples are of the form:
xsl:choose
xsl:when test='expr1' something
so if you whant to know how to build 'expr1' you need another book.
After spending the money and time I had to go to the www.w3c.org site and obtain the information.
XSLT: Working with XML and HTML
Uniquely efficient presentation of the topic. A necessary and sufficient description of the 20% of XSLT that is used in 80% of applications. Perfect use of extended graphics for the tree handling basics in Part II, which by itself justifies purchase. This is one of a handful of books I've run across in 20 years that takes the reader to an intermediate level in almost no time. (Frank Pagan's slim book on Formal Definition of Programming Languages is another.) Consensus among colleagues is that the Fung book for jump-start plus the Michael Kay (2nd ed) book for reference is the XSLT library to have. One wishes this author would write on other topics.
The best XSLT book to start with
This is the most beginner-friendly book on XSLT I am aware of. It is written in simple language devoid of XML infamous dreadful terminology. It implies neither the reader's significant Computer Science background, nor outstanding brain power. Explanations are as clear and simple as possible, with lots of illustrations. 1-star reviewers remarks about "cryptic writing" and "higher algebra" are egregiously misaddressed (though entertaining :).
Learning XSLT made difficult thru cryptic writing
I felt frustrated after the first 100 pages. The writer completely lost me after I struggled thru from page 50 or so! He seemed more interested in starting off each chapter with quotes by Chuang Ji and I don't know how the words in the quotes related to the topic, though only the quotes seemed interesting than the presentation of XSLT by the author. The book started off nicely in simple English and things were placed in perspective. Examples of the various nodes were shown in diagrams too, but that alone spanned over 25 pages! Chapter 3 became an overview of the real world example of XSLT works, the Chapter 4 was what shredded me to pieces. From then on, the writer didn't seem interested in helping the reader understand XSLT in clear simple words, instead used cryptic language with jargon. Mr. Fung just failed to help readers to nail down the cryptic symbols in an otherwise easy XSL transformation process! Elizabeth Castro did a real wonderful job in her book on XML in explaining XSLT and XPath.
Nice examples of XML implementation...
I have been tinkering with XML in conjunction with Web Application Architecture over the past few years. This book has provided me with great examples of how to effectively implement XML solutions. In the very least, it has provided me great inspiration.However, the author's unrelated Zen like comments and quotes strewn throughout the book bothered me.
(13 reviews)
