Comments about oreilly XML Pocket Reference:

XML Pocket Reference

Paperback, First printing, 107 pages

By Robert Eckstein

Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Copyright © 1999

ISBN: I-56592-709-5

Review written: October 18, 2000

By Donald W. Larson

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

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

XML is becoming in 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 the 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. It covers XML Stylesheets and the various XSL stylesheet elements that trigger actions as a XML document is translated. It covers Xlink and XPointer topics, although the author points out these are changing rapidly and may be out-of-date even at the time of printing.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.

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

Rating: 9.5 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.

Comments about oreilly XML Pocket Reference:

The best way to learn XML in an hour. Great writing, easy-to-understand explanations. This would be a five-star book if up to date with coverage of schemas.

Comments about oreilly XML Pocket Reference:

Just bought this one. A first comment... Thank you, O'Reilly, for putting an index in a Pocket Ref book! Without the index, a Pocket Ref book is sorta like a French-English (say) pocket dictionary, where words are sorted by reverse soundex(MD5(word_string)).

Comments about oreilly XML Pocket Reference:

ORAs Pocket References are surprisingly useful due to their convenient format. It has all the right stuff.

Unfortuantely, partially due to the nature of XML as a developing standard, This presents the material more as a pocket tutorial than a pocket reference. Witness the fact that there is no "namespace" reference index in the page and the section headings are buried in the bindings. Here you have a hierarchical structured language but a book who's structure does not reflect it!

Still, it provides a convenient tag reference, once you can find it. Again, the descriptions seem overly didatic. But I guess this can prove an immense help to those new to XML as well as due to the lack of a "definitive guide" or "complete reference" for XML.

A minor note is that it would have been nice if he prefaced the namespaces with the latest namespaces, as well as stated in which specification a tag may have appeared. I ran into trouble with the xsl:invoke / xsl:macro /xsl:content which I was unable to find in the most recent XSLT specification at W3 .

Also, it could do with a chapter devoted to the DOM for people who will be accessing XML programmatically--MSDN maanged to cram it into an unreadable page, XML:Pocket Reference should devote at least five readable pages.

Part of me wonders why O'Reilly didn't put a big red BETA EDITION across the cover. I could use a discount on the next edition when the working drafts get finalized.

Now having been overly harsh on Mr. Eckstein's work, I have to turn around and recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone trying to pick up XML. Like all of the Pocket Reference series, this one is a winner. The only disappointment they will find is that ORA stopped including the lay-flat binding so they're liable to break the binding of even this tiny book before they've figured out XML and even then, still be referencing it a lot.

-terry

Comments about oreilly XML Pocket Reference:

I'd been reading bits on XML here and there, but it wasn't until I picked up this book that I began to make sense of anything regarding this language. Especially helpful was page 56 where Mr. Eckstein explains how to associate an XSL (or CSS) stylesheet with an XML document. I have yet to see any other author or website point out this crucial, basic information. Without it, I'd still be fumbling around.