Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

One of my favorite little books to keep on my desk. I can't believe how much good stuff they got in this tiny book. Not a tutorial or educational book, but if you kind of know your way around XML and just need to check syntax or XSL method names, this is the book for you.

Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

I refer to this book all the time. For such a small book (under 100 pages), it does an excellent job of covering the core XML technologies. The book is an excellent reference for DTD, XSLT, and XPath, which is essential for XSLT templates. Good, short samples are provided. It also covers XPointer and XLink, but I haven't used those yet.

The TOC is a page and a half and their isn't any index, but I haven't had any trouble finding the information I need quickly.

Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

"XML Pocket Reference"

Paperback, Second printing, 96 pages

By Robert Eckstein with Michael Casabianca

Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Copyright © April 2001

ISBN: 0-596-00133-9

Review written: October 22, 2001

By Donald W. Larson

Web Site: http://www.sandiegodon.com/

Book reviews: http://sd.znet.com/~dwlarson/bookReviews.html

XML is becoming the lingua franca for exchanging information between computer systems. Many Java technologies implement XML as a way to establish properties. XML is a way to disseminate records from databases to XML-aware applications at-large. I found this second edition book to be most helpful and sits beside me as I work on my computer.

The book provides practical examples and then fully explains using those example's line-by-line in most cases. Overviews provide well-rounded understanding as the reader proceeds. The book's index is extensive and most helpful.

Topics include the complete description of DTD's, elements, entities, and attributes. It cleared up some confusion I had about default namespaces and should make it clear to anyone else too.

There are very good updates on XSL and XSLT. The definitions and examples are very clear. More than half of the book delves into the details of the newest XML technologies.

This edition better covers Xlink, XPointer, and XPaths topics, although as in the first edition,the author points out these are changing rapidly and may be out-of-date even at the time of printing. The book serves as a handy encyclopedia of terms and definitions concerning XML.

The only complaint I have is that this book is missing the index! It is very difficult to believe that a publisher of technical books can include an index in the first edition and omit it completely in the second edition. Who is proofing these books? I can recommend the www.wordco.com company, they can provide complete indexes as needed.

If you are learning about other technologies that incorporate XML, I recommend this book as a companion during your reading, learning, and understanding its uses.

Rating: 6 out of 10

This rating is my own personal value system and as such is very subjective. I think a rating of 5 means I would read finish reading a book. A rating of 10 would indicate I had trouble putting a book down and have no complaints at all about it.

With an index I would have raised the rating to over 9.0. Instead I had to downgrade it to 6. I look forward to a third edition that contains a complete index and the latest information.

Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

A light-weight approach to a often heavy-handed topic - this is one of the best 'pocket' books I've read! This pocket reference provides an overview of XML, DTD, XSLT, XLink and XPointer in a relativly easy to follow style. I will admit, I needed to read this book a couple of times before 'getting it'. But with only 102 pages, it was easy enough to do! I think that's how this book succeeds where other XML primers fail - this book provides concise information without a lot of overhead, and really explains XML and what you can do with it. This was the best $10 of knowledge I've ever invested in!

Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

Where's the index ?!?

The 1st edition had one, the 2nd doesn't - is this because O'Reilly wants to produce *less* valuable products, or what ?

And don't you people "unpost" this review.

Comments about O'Reilly Media XML Pocket Reference:

The text is definitive. It covers the XML spec

and provides good examples of XML usage. For the

price of this book how can one go wrong?

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Mike