By Erik T. Ray
January 2001
Pages: 368
ISBN 10: 0-596-00046-4 |
ISBN 13: 9780596000462
(Average of 13 Customer Reviews)
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XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create "self-describing data"--and to share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. In Learning XML, the author explains XML and its capabilities succinctly and professionally, with references to real-life projects and other cogent examples. Learning XML shows the purpose of XML markup itself, the CSS and XSL styling languages, and the XLink and XPointer specifications for creating rich link structures.
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Book details
First Edition: January 2001
ISBN: 0-596-00046-4
Pages: 368
Average Customer Reviews: (Based on 13 Reviews)
Featured customer reviews
Learning XML Review, June 09 2002
This is a very good introduction to XML but is also plagued with errors. The author provides good background explanations for the topics that need it and uses many good analogies and examples. Unfortunately there are many errors that are serious and obscure enough to confuse the intended audience. Do yourself a favor - buy this book then visit the errata page listed in the preface. Make sure to read both the confirmed and unconfirmed pages. The proof readers need to be taken outside and pelted with donuts.
Learning XML Review, May 02 2002
I've been working my way through this book for the past couple of weeks. It has taught me some things I didn't know but, in some cases, has left me more confused. It doesn't usually take me this long to get through a book and with O'Reilly books, I'm usually thrilled with the book ... not this time though!
One of the biggest frustrations is that I've been unable to get a couple of the examples to work:
- The example on page 136 for embedding counters and content just seems to get ignored when I include it in my DocBook style sheet.
- I downloaded the examples 0401.xml and 0402.css, renamed the style1.css href in 0401.xml to point to 0402.css and get nothing but one big blob of text.
So, unless there is something to explain the issues later in the book, or the version of IE I'm using can't handle the XHTML/CSS combo, I don't get any benefit from example 0402.xml if it doesn't even work!
Learning XML Review, April 28 2002
i come from china. i like this book very much,becase it is good for beginner.
Learning XML Review, April 04 2002
I won't repeat the mostly negative reviews that are already posted here. There is way too much prose, and not enough information. This book is not targeted for O'Reilly's core audience, but the technical amateur. I feel I have wasted my money.
Learning XML Review, March 18 2002
I must agree with Mr. Wolf. I never even look to buy books from publisher other than O'Reilly. I especially love Learning VBScript. This book, however, leaves a dry taste in my mouth. I originally bought this book after reading a few online tutorials from different sites. After reading the first 45 pages, I returned to the sites to complete my XML education. I'm considering buying a book from another publisher for reference. The first two chapters of this book were an advertisement for the rest of the book. By the time I reached page 40 I was still seeing, "we'll discuss this in further detail in chapter 7, 3, etc." Why? You should have me hooked by now, and unfortunatly, I was not.
I must say, I did not like the author's style of teaching, the "I'll get to this later" method is fine, but not 5 chapters later. Why tease me now then?
Learning XML Review, January 23 2002
"Learning XML" is good as computer books go but doesn't match expectations as O'Reilly books go. Take the discussion of XML name spaces, for example. The author describes the basic idea and syntax, which is fine. He then notes that the URI associated with the name space doesn't even have to point anywhere, which is also fine in that it's true, but most definitely not fine in that it leaves you wondering "What's up with that?" and forces you to go to a web site such as www.xml.com/lpt/a/2000/03/08/namespaces/index.html to read the "myths" article by Ronald Bourret, who explains the point clearly and succinctly in about three paragraphs. I expect O'Reilly books to contain those three paragraphs, and not leave me dangling conceptually. It's a good book by an author who's obviously trying, but it lacks the O'Reilly magic.
Learning XML Review, December 04 2001
The book was fairly easy to read (from the perspective of someone who hasn't used XML before) and is handy as a reference. I read it before writing an XML-based B2B system, and it covered everything I needed to create the DTD's for the different transactions - though I had to look elsewhere for info on reading the XML files from Java.
I'd like to see more info on schemas if there is another edition. I think the section about programming with XML is uneccesary, better left for other books that can address the subject in more detail.
Another review mentioned the lack of thorough examples, I'd like to note that I appreciate that lack. Other XML books I skimmed were bloated with examples that I couldn't care less about. Learning XML had the right mix of info and examples, imho.
Learning XML Review, October 29 2001
Alhtough well written and even thorough (well mostly), I find the title a bit
misleading. XML and DTD's and all that jazz is well covered, but the approach
brings in mind an school text book, not hands on manual. General reading, if
you like.
Jani Pohjanraito
Learning XML Review, October 16 2001
I am highly disappointed.
I've been a devoted fan of O'Reilly publications ever since the nutshell books were small, and bound with 2 staples. The reason for my longstanding loyalty to them is their loyalty to me, the technical audience. Their books are well written, entertaining, factual, accurate, and easily absorbed.
This book (although probably better than most on the market) does not measure up to the high standards I normally associate with books from O'Reilly and Associates. Although I am only a beginner (the target for the book), I found numerous syntax and logic errors in the examples. But more importantly, in a book that's about transforming an input tree into an output tree, the trees are often notably lacking. All that's presented is the transformation(XSLT). That doesn't work as a training example. It's like a diet commercial that shows only the pill, but no "before" or "after" pictures. Yeah, the pill (in this analogy, XSLT) is interesting, but since it's a translator from input to output, I'm left imagining what they look like. Having them as easy references would have been extremely helpful to me as I worked through the transformation.
Furthermore (and I'll agree that this is an ill-defined issue) the text seemed too text-y and prone to discussion. What I liked about previous O'Reilly books (Perl especialy) is that the _discussion_ is wrapped around good _examples_ of the language. The *examples* are the point, and the discussion supports them. Not so in this XML book. In this book, the discussions were often not supported by examples. Again, I have to create a picture in my own mind rather than absorbing the example that should have been placed in the book. Because there were more discussions than actual examples, I felt that I had to work really hard to understand the concepts. In contrast, the examples from other books seemed to make it more cranio-available (i.e. readily absorbed) to me. I can't exactly put my finger on the source of this difficulty, but the symptom for me is that I was more tired and less confident of my skills when I put this book down than when I've put other books down. That feeling - easily absorbed material instilling confidence - is why I've loved O'Reilly books in the past. This book (while it *did* help me learn XML) did *not* leave me with that O'Reilly feeling.
I'll try other XML books from O'Reilly as reference now that I've finished the tutorial, but in the mean time, I can't recommend this book. And it brings me sorrow to have to single this book out. It's the first disappointment from O'Reilly in our long relationship.
Learning XML Review, June 26 2001
Congrats to the Author. Well organized and informative.
Learning XML Review, April 17 2001
I'm currently in Chapter 5 (about halfway through the book). Even if I never finish the book, I've gotten my money's worth. Not only do I actually understand what XML is, but I understand why people think it's so cool.
I bought the book because I was working on a project to create, organize, and store test results and other documentation for my department. As an added bonus, the book mentioned DocBook, an open standard for writing technical documentation in SGML and XML! Now, I don't even have to develop my own schema.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to know more about XML, but doesn't want to waste time wading through hundreds of web sites or trying to decipher other books.
Learning XML Review, April 06 2001
I have read the first three chapter(S). It is a(n) excellent books(omit the s) for learning XML.
This is another sucess for O'Reilly.
Geesh, I hope the book isn't writen like this review. Being an oriely, I'm sure it's a great book. I am going to have it shipped today.
Learning XML Review, April 04 2001
I have read the first three chapter. It is a excellent books for learning XML.
This is another sucess for O'Reilly.
Media reviews
"I set out to learn just enough about XML to get the job done. Fortunately, I had a copy of O'Reilly's 'Learning XML' (Erik T. Ray, 2001) to help me get up to speed. For anyone with down time in their work schedule, I recommend the Learning series. These books provide gentle introductions to numerous important tools and languages such as Java,Perl, C#, web design, Oracle PL/SQL and the Unix operating system and are designed for people wanting to pick up a new skill without taking a class. After only a couple of hours of reading, I was able to easily convert the output of my script and I had a good handle on the basic XML function along with its markup capabilities."
--Sandra Henry-Stocker, Unix in the Enterprise, 2 Jan 2003
"If you want to get started learning XML offline, this is a great choice."
--Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com, Dec 10, 2002
"Erik Ray's 'Learning XML' is quite simply the best general introduction to XML that I have read to date."
--gbdirect.co.uk, Jan 2002
"This is an excellent primer and one of the best teaching books about XML. The author understands the concept of a picture being 'worth a 1000 words.' He is clearly comfortable using diagrams to illustrate his point."
--Ken North, Dr Dobbs
"A clear and comprehensive overview of the inner workings of this exciting new technology...very accessible and digestible in few sittings...Like most O'Reilly publications, this book is a reliable source on the subject. Its success lies in the authors thorough understanding of XML and ability to make the complex clear...an incredibly useful guide...highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding XML and keeping up with the rapid developments of this important technology."
--James Kalback, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Oct 2001
"Five stars...This is a great introductory book on XML. It clearly explains the language and will leave you hungry to get started on your documents. For advanced Web developers, beginning programmers and database architects, and anyone interested in information flow, this is a good book to pick up."
--Jennifer Kyrnin, About Guide to HTML, Nov 2001
Best of 2001 Award; Computing and Internet, Fatbrain.com
"A really good book. The idea of ending each chapter with a large 'real-world', annotated example is very useful. It makes this book a sort of 'Illustrated XML.' This is very well written with clear examples throughout. A very good core book for this important technology."
--Kevin Taylor, Northants Linux Use, March 2001
"a clear and concise XML book."
--vulinhnguyen, Java and Web developer, enterprise Java Books List, amazon.com
"'Learning XML' is another great title from O'Reilly that covers the basics of XML and explains how XML and XSL work together to create HTML, WAP etc. As the title suggests this book is for the novice XML programmer and it does a brilliant job illustrating the core XML concepts and language syntax. If you are an experienced XML programmer this is probably not the book for you."
--abstractvb.com
"packed with examples of code, along with explanations of what it all means...if you have the time, Erik T. Ray has the knowledge."
--Internet Works, Sept 2001
"'Learning XML' does what it sets out to do: provides an introduction to SML concepts and XML document authoring and the related standards and, as such, represents an ideal starting point for anyone using XML."
--IT Training, August 2001
"O'Reilly books have a good record. Well-known for their in a Nutshell series and their zoological cover illustrations, I've always found them highly satisfactory. There cannot be many works that be referred to familiarly as, for instance, The Camel Book. Well now we have The Newly-Hatched Chick book. From the title of this one I had somehow (wrongly) expected an XML primer covering only basics, but this is a thorough treatment of the subject. The book's general layout conforms to what we have become familiar with in O'Reilly: The index is excellent and there are appendices giving a glossary and lists of standards, tools, books and resources and where to find them. Learning XML, very readable as well as being a good reference, is strongly recommended."
--Sandy McCourt, uk-bug developer's magazine, July/August 2001
"This is a sound piece of work on XML. Clearly, with a developing standard such as XML nothing ever stays still for long and the various applications and tools appear at a disconcerting rate. However, if you begin with a book like this and take in the fundamentals thoroughly, there is no reason why future developments will not be manageable."
--Tom Wilson, http://informationr.net/, August 2001
"Author Erik T. Ray begins with an excellent summary of XML's history as an outgrowth of SGML and HTML. He outlines very clearly the elements of markup, demystifying concepts such as attributes, entities, and namespaces with numerous clear examples."
--Randy M. Zeitman, CompBookReview.com, August 2001
"An excellent book...This is very well written with clear examples throughout. A very good core book for this important technology."
--Kevin Taylor, Northants Linux Users Group, 14th March 2001
"These (Learning XML and XML in a Nutshell) are the most accessible books on XML that I have come across and I would certainly use Learning XML as a recommended text for any course on it that I gave. I you work with XML or are going to then you probably ought to have both these books"
--Lindsay Marshall, news@UK, June 2001
"'Learning XML' is a very readable introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and Web technologies. It meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad perspective of XML and its potential."
--Stephen W. Plain, amazon.com, April 2001
"a good book to use when getting started with XML. It is a ready reference to the many technologies one can use to supplement HTML in creating dynamic content, and in providing interactive capabilities in web sites and web pages."
--The Vista PC Journal, June 2001
"This excellent new book on XML (Extensible Markup Language), while not for everyone, is indeed going to get a lot of attention from the many folks who are heavily involved in developing Web site content. O'Reilly Hits Another Homer...The O'Reilly publishing firm, famous for their emphasis on a common-sense approach to explaining very technical material, depth of detail, and focus on the practical, has released an invaluable tool for anyone interested in maximizing the potential of XML with their Web site development work. For those just starting out with XML, Ray provides an appropriate first-time learning book, that could be later built on with other titles that do delve more deeply in the intricacies of the tedious programming in XML that Ray wisely eschews in this title. With this release, O'Reilly again proves its mettle as the pre-eminent publisher of technical works of superb quality and lasting value, and that meet the higher expectations of professionals searching for solid substance that directly translates their minimal investment in the book into soon to be realized profitable returns."
--Dale Ferris, Golden Triangle PC Club, May 2001
"It explains how the basics of XML work so that you can get started and understand. If you want to get started learning XML offline, this is a great choice."
--Jennifer Kyrnin, Focus on HTML/XML
"a well-written and helpful approach to understanding and using XML. It's also an ideal learning tool and also references ways to become a part of the XML community."
--Sys Admin, May 2001
"The approach in this book works well with the way I like to read to learn. I would definitely recommend this book to programmers wanting to get to grips with XML."
--Francis Glassborow, CVU, April 2001
"A clear and concise XML book."
--Vulinhnguyen, Enterprise Java Booklist, April 2001
"Another example of why books from O'Reilly are so highly regarded, Learning XML is a title of modest size, easy to read, and covers its subject in remarkable depth."
--Major Kearny, Book News, March 2001
"For brevity, completeness of coverage, clarity of writing, and usefulness of examples, this is the best XML book I have seen. I recommend it highly."
--Richard Mateosian, IEEE Micro, March-April 2001
" Erik Ray's 'Learning XML' is quite simply the best general introduction to XML that I have read to date...O'Reilly deserves congratulation for resisting the temptation, to which most technical publishers have succumbed, of rushing out an XML 'instant book'. With this volume at least, they have returned to the tradition which established their reputation i.e. a tradition of considered and thoughtful texts which have become definitive works by concentrating on the clear and orderly elaboration of fundamentals... Erik Ray's greatest achievement in writing this XML book has been to ruthlessly exclude the merely relevant from his discussion. With one or two notable exceptions, most pages in 'Learning XML' are devoted to simply explaining and illustrating core XML concepts. Details which needlessly consume the reader's time, overload their capacity to digest and obscure the truly critical issues, are typically avoided. When details are provided, they are invariably well organized, both sequentially and hierarchically. Unlike so many of the genre, one rarely feels that the subsequent topic appears simply because it was the next thing that the author thought of."
--gbdirect.co.uk
