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Softpanorama bookshelf: Best XML books

News See also Open and Free Best Introductory Reference Advanced
Perl & XML XSLT   Docbook DLT Etc

XML is greatly over hyped technology. But in moderate doses it is useful and permit conversion to several formats using well developed tools (XSLT).  Old O'Reilly The XML CD Bookshelf  can serve as a cheap and not bad start.

NEWS CONTENTS

News

Perl & XML (O'Reilly Perl)

by Erik T. Ray, Jason McIntosh

  • Paperback: 216 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.55 x 9.18 x 6.98
  • Publisher: O'Reilly; 1 edition (April 2002)
  • ISBN: 059600205X
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars Based on 4 reviews.

XML and Perl

by Mark Riehl, Ilya Sterin

5 out of 5 stars Complete with great examples., February 27, 2003
Reviewer: Jim Horton (USA) - See all my reviews
The authors of this book, definitely know the subject. I believe one of them is an author of quite a few XML modules, though both are widely known in the Perl XML community.

This book definitely covers the state of Perl and XML. It goes over the most important modules, in great detail and providing concrete examples. I especially like the first two chapters, which in detail get you prepared for the rest of the book. The coverage of XML parsing theory was a great topic to cover. Two large chapters, each dedicated to SAX and DOM respectively, covered both parsing technologies in great detail.

Beginning XML

  • Unknown Binding
  • Publisher: Sagebrush Bound; (August 2004)
  • ISBN: 1417625031

XML Design Handbook

by Scott Bonneau, Tammy Kohl, Jeni Tennison

  • Paperback: 328 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.71 x 9.16 x 6.02
  • Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (February 25, 2003)
  • ISBN: 186100768X
  • Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars Based on 4 reviews. Write a review.
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: 379,837

The XML CD Bookshelf


Best Introductory Books

Learning XML, second edition
by Erik T. Ray

5 out of 5 stars Good transition book from HTML, CSS --> XML, June 13, 2001
Reviewer: Tuesday Frase (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
SHORT: I highly recommend this book if you know HTML and have some exposure to CSS; it's a good intro book to XML, which is what it's intended to be. The end result is that you'll know enough to get started with more technical books, and where to go for available web resources.

LONGER: The reasons that other people have given for not liking this book are some of the same reasons that I find it useful. I'm pretty well-versed in HTML and have some basic understanding of JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets. This book goes into detail about both and gives comparisons and evolutions that involve XML. I'm about halfway through it at the moment, and it's giving me a clear, not-to-technical view of XML. The other books I have go straight into the code, telling me HOW but not really explaining the WHY of everything. That's what makes this book great to me. The first half deals with explanation and presentation, while the last half is more code-heavy. The two other books I have strive to be highly technical, but proved to be a bit overwhelming for me as a complete newbie to the subject of XML.

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3 out of 5 stars Suggested New Title: Anatomy of XML, March 2, 2003

Reviewer: Jase T. Wolfe (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
By page 177 I realized that I was never going to touch a keyboard while reading this book. I can't speak for everyone, but when I pick up a book expecting to learn the topic, I need theory, reference, examples and structured "assignments". This title offers the first three, but I never get to apply what I am learning hands-on in a graduated fashion. When I am finished, I have little more than the ability to recognize the components of XML. Just because you can recognize all the foods in a grocery store, and know the origins of all the spices on your spice rack, doesn't mean you can cook; the same principal applies here. I am fully aware that XML is comprised of many different elements, and many of the XML development environments are very expensive, but many are free and could have been used to teach the concept clearer.

The title also has many errors, so the errata list on the publisher's web site is important. The book does not include any of the source code, so if you want that, you have to download it. Even then, it is not complete and file titles in the book do not always match the provided code file names.

If you are looking for a hands-on book to learn XML, this isn't the title. If you know XML and are looking for a reference, again - not for you. However, if you are interested in it from more of an administrative overview position, then the title is worth the read. It can provide many answers and give a good base of information without the need to actually write any XML on your own.

**** XML by Example (By Example)
by Benoit Marchal
Our Price: $17.49

Paperback - 425 pages 1 edition (December 14, 1999)
Que; ISBN: 0789722429 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.10 x 7.38
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 46
Popular in: Hotmail Corporation (#19)
Avg. Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars
Number of Reviews: 9

See also Web Developer's Journal XML By Example [Book Review]
5 out of 5 stars Very good book to start learning XML April 17, 2000
Reviewer: Armen Jamkotchian (see more about me) from Los Angeles, California, USA
I found this book to be excellent to start learning XML. If you want to understand what XML is all about without getting into scholastics, buy it. It doesn't overwhelm the reader with endless empiric discussions and takes the shortest routes to get you to the point. That is what makes this book valuable for professional programmers who need a quick "jump-start" on XML. The examples are simple and easy to understand. However you should clearly understand that this book is not about sophisticated applications of XML. If you are already familiar with the basic concepts of XML and have some practical experience with it, you most likely will not find this book very useful.
5 out of 5 stars Great Book -- For Java Programmers Only. April 11, 2000
Reviewer: christian nuesa (see more about me) from California, USA
This book has given me great understanding about XML and its power when mix with Java. What I also love about this book is the example of an eCommerce with XML and Java as its backbone. You'll really see the role of XML on the web application. I highly recommend this to Java programmers only. If your not you may wanna read about java first.
Building Web Sites with XML

by Michael Floyd

Textbook Binding - 400 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition (December 21, 1999)
Prentice Hall; ISBN: 0130866016 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.25 x 9.24 x 7.01

Our Price: $31.99
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 7,516
Avg. Customer Review: *****
Number of Reviews:
2

MICHAEL FLOYD is a veteran technical journalist and is currently serving as the Beyond HTML columnist and Editor-at-Large at Web Techniques magazine. He was a longtime editor at the prestigious Dr. Dobb's Journal and now publishes BeyondHTML.com, an experimental Web site based on his writings on XML.

4 out of 5 stars A practical guide for webmasters February 15, 2000
Reviewer: Edward P. Hughes from USA
As the title suggests, this book is targeted for Webmasters with some knowledge of client-side scripting assumed. The examples are clear and most are general enough to be usable in any website. Later parts of the book go into short descriptions of XML-related products currently on the market and their inevitable quirks (most being beta code). Much of this would have been better handled with a link to the author's website considering that a good deal of this info may be obsolete in a few weeks. In the same vein, the included CD which includes a small example website done using XML could have easily been provided online, reducing the overall cost of the book.
***+ Xml A Primer

Paperback - 448 pages 2nd edition (September 1999)
IDG Books Worldwide; ISBN: 076453310X
Our Price: $15.99

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2,657
Avg. Customer Review: ****+
Number of Reviews: 21

5 out of 5 stars XML technology in its dawn January 21, 2000
Reviewer: Lubomir Masar from Houston, Texas
The recent book by Simon St. Laurent brought me really delectable reading about things I have never heard before. Nonetheless, it tremendously instigated my interest in this field. As for the content of his book, I highly value very comprehensible style with many straighforward examples and even more references to websites. The book is not just a primer - I consider it small beginner's encyclopaedia to the future of web. We may wish more such books by him, e.g. about CSS and topics related to XML documents formatting. If I could dare to evaluate the book in brief, I would say: well done!
Project Cool Guide to XML for Web Designers
by Teresa A. Martin. Paperback
Our Price:$27.99
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Designing Xml Internet Applications (Charles F. Goldfarb Series) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
Michael Leventhal, et al / Paperback / Published 1998
Our Price: $35.96 ~ You Save: $8.99 (20%)

Contents

Foreword
User's Guide
Acknowledgments
Pt. 1. Internets, XML, and Tools
Ch. 1. Internets
Ch. 2. XML, Data, and Documents
Ch. 3. XML and SGML Tools
Pt. 2. Perl and XML
Ch. 4. The Desperate Perl Hacker and Internet Applications: Overview
Ch. 5. An XML Bulletin Board
Ch. 6. An XML Contact Database
Ch. 7. Structure-based search
Ch. 8. Type Transformation, Import, and Export
Pt. 3. XML/SGML E-mail
Ch. 9. XML E-mail
Pt. 4. XML and Java-Parsers and APIs
Ch. 10. XML Parsers and Application Programmer Interfaces
Pt. 5. Future - Agents and all that
Ch. 11. Input Gathering and Negotiation using XML
Index

Xml in Action ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
William J. Pardi / Paperback / Published 1999
Our Price: $31.99 ~ You Save: $8.00 (20%)
Paperback - 329 pages Bk&Disk edition (March 1999)
Microsoft Press; ISBN: 0735605629 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.14 x 9.10 x 7.43
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1,836
Avg. Customer Review: *****
Number of Reviews: 3

In XML in Action, William J. Pardi gives you a feel for what Microsoft is throwing into the mix by providing a general introduction to XML, with a focus on Internet Explorer 5.0's implementation in particular.

The book illustrates how to script XML and how to use it to build data structures--a major advantage of XML and an important skill for Web developers. The author also discusses the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), a special formatting dialect for use with XML, and the special linking capabilities of XML, focusing on Xlink and Xpointer.
A companion CD includes e-text of the book, content, and code samples and links to XML resources online. While this title is written through the eyes of Microsoft, it provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities and realities of XML.

Reference

XML Pocket Reference
by Robert Eckstein. Paperback (October 1999)
Our Price:$7.16
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Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars
Xml Specification Guide ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
Ian S. Graham, Liam Quin / Paperback / Published 1999
Our Price: $31.99 ~ You Save: $8.00 (20%)

Xml Design and Implementation

Paperback - 426 pages 1st edition (April 1999)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861002289 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.14 x 9.18 x 7.26
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 15,571
Avg. Customer Review: *****
Number of Reviews: 9

4 out of 5 stars Quite a valuable resource March 22, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from Seattle, Washington
This MS-centric book is an easy read with great detail on some of the mysterious aspects of XML that are not covered in other books. XMLHTTP, DTDs, XSL and Schema are all very well explained with supporting examples.

I must recommend that you buy this book instead of, or at least before Alex Homer's WROX book, "XML IE5 Programmer's Reference". This book will help you more easily learn the technology and how to make it work in your architecture.

XML IE5 Programmer's Reference

Mass Market Paperback - 479 pages First edition (June 1999)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861001576 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.02 x 9.01 x 6.04
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 5,225
Popular in: Microsoft Corporation (#14) , Kirkland, WA (#17) . See more
Avg. Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars
Number of Reviews: 9

The book uses Javascript.

3 out of 5 stars Best book I've found, but there's room for improvement. December 3, 1999
Reviewer: Alex Strasheim (see more about me) from Chicago, IL
The new XML features in IE5 are exciting, and we're starting to use XML to publish complicated db data on the web. This book got me up and running, so I've gotten a lot of use out of it. But my feeling is that no one has really figured out how to explain XML very well, and this book, like all of the other XML books I've read, seemed a little muddled and difficult to read. The first four chapters of the book are devoted to XML theory and descriptions of the various technologies MS uses, and I found them a little confusing, despite the fact that I was already running some of the XML-Apache code. For me, though, the bottom line is that the technology is so useful and exciting that it's worth expending a little extra effort to pick it up. If someone knows of a better book, email me and let me know. But for now, as far as I know this is an imperfect book that's the best way to learn an important new technology. For that reason, I recommend it.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4 out of 5 stars Good programmer's introduction to XML August 11, 1999
Reviewer: Bill DuBay ([email protected]) from Costa Mesa, California
Author Alex Homer (NOT Horner) tackles the difficult task of explaining XML--for which the standards are not yet nailed down, but which Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 browser supports in its own peculiar way. The book is aimed at programmers already doing Web-based programming who want to manipulate XML documents on the Web. There are two key technologies supported in IE5 and described in this book. One is the Data Source Object, which can be used to process XML documents set up like a database. It requires that each XML record have the same kind and number of elements, like records in a database. The other technology is the XML Document Object Model, an Application Program Interface that lets Web programmers manipulate XML documents of different structures (using programming script). One chapter that does not seem to require any script writing is the one covering stylesheets, CSS and XSL, with which you can display XML documents nearly anyway you want in IE5. Finally, there are several chapters of references for XML and IE5 that should be of great help to any Web programmer itching to get into XML. The hands-on examples of code are great, often accompanied by links to the publisher's Web site, where you can download updates and source-code examples.

XML Elements of Style

Paperback - 320 pages (December 27, 1999)
McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing; ISBN: 007212220X ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 8.92 x 5.93
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 38,039
Avg. Customer Review: *****
Number of Reviews: 2

XML Bible

by Elliotte Rusty Harold

Our Price: $39.99

Paperback - 1015 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition (July 1999)
IDG Books Worldwide; ISBN: 0764532367 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.94 x 9.19 x 7.42
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1,024
Popular in: Lowell, MA (#8) , Autodesk Inc. (#20) . See more
Avg. Customer Review: ****
Number of Reviews: 26

Professional XML

by Stephen Mohr (Editor), Mark Birbeck, Michael Kay, stev Livingstone, Didier Martin, Dino Esposito, Steven Livingston, Brian Loesgen, Nikola Ozu, Mark Seabourne

Paperback - 750 pages 1st edition (January 2000)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861003110 ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.10 x 9.19 x 7.36
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 264
Avg. Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars
Number of Reviews: 9

3 out of 5 stars Good reference book, not a learning one March 20, 2000
Reviewer: Maxime Bombardier (see more about me) from Montrйal, Canada
I've found this book very hard to understand as a first book on XML. If you know what XML is about but are looking for practical real-life exemples, look elsewhere. If you know XML and want to know everything about it's internal work and how to work with DTD, that would be your book.

I've also ordered the Professional XML IE5 Programmer's Reference at the same time and this book gave me an overview of what I can do with XML on the Internet and THEN I had an idea of what to do of the Professional XML book.

You have to ask you those questions : Do I need to know how to show XML with XSL, ASP, DHTML, HTML? If yes, look elsewhese first. Do I need an XML reference to know how to create XML files? If yes, look no further.


The Latex Web Companion : Integrating Tex, Html and Xml (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting Series) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours
Michel Goossens, et al / Paperback / Published 1999
Our Price: $36.95

Perl and XML

Perl & XML (O'Reilly Perl)

by Erik T. Ray, Jason McIntosh

  • Paperback: 216 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.55 x 9.18 x 6.98
  • Publisher: O'Reilly; 1 edition (April 2002)
  • ISBN: 059600205X
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars Based on 4 reviews.

XML and Perl

by Mark Riehl, Ilya Sterin

  • Paperback: 400 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.80 x 9.00 x 6.96
  • Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st edition (October 16, 2002)
  • ISBN: 0735712891
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars Based on 11 reviews.
5 out of 5 stars Complete with great examples., February 27, 2003
Reviewer: Jim Horton (USA) - See all my reviews
The authors of this book, definitely know the subject. I believe one of them is an author of quite a few XML modules, though both are widely known in the Perl XML community.

This book definitely covers the state of Perl and XML. It goes over the most important modules, in great detail and providing concrete examples. I especially like the first two chapters, which in detail get you prepared for the rest of the book. The coverage of XML parsing theory was a great topic to cover. Two large chapters, each dedicated to SAX and DOM respectively, covered both parsing technologies in great detail.


Docbook

DocBook: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly XML) -- Norman Walsh, Leonard Muellner; Paperback

by Norman Walsh, Leonard Muellner
Our Price: $29.56

Paperback - 652 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition (October 1999)
O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 1565925807 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.36 x 9.16 x 7.05
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 25,342
Avg. Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars
Number of Reviews: 1

4 out of 5 stars Excellent but dense! March 2, 2000
Reviewer: Glenn Booker (see more about me) from New Jersey, USA
This book describes the de facto standard for creating technical documents - the Docbook Data Type Definition (DTD). Docbook is used by most of the major Linux vendors, the Linux Documentation Project, and many large companies. Docbook is a specific set of SGML tags which can be used to create technical books, articles, etc. The book is largely a very clear description of each tag which exists in the Docbook DTD. The appendices cover issues like installation and getting started, which are too brief for my taste. The authors give a brief intro to SGML, describe the structure of a Docbook document, and then jump into the tag descriptions. The problem is, there is no such thing as a Docbook application, like MS Word or something. Either you have to write documents by hand in a text processor (e.g. Notepad or vi), or you need a terribly expensive SGML tool to automate the process for you (e.g. Arbortext's products). It took me quite a while to understand that!



Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotesSomerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose BierceBernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOSProgramming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC developmentScripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-MonthHow to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D


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Last modified: March 12, 2019