ISBN:0782140335Book Description
XML Complete is a one-of-a-kind book--valuable both for its broad content and its low price. The book contains all the essentials on XML, including comprehensive information on XML-related standards like XHTML and XSLT.
With XML Complete, you'll learn everything you need to know for Web development with XML--from creating elements, attributes, and entities to using XML with Servlets and JSP. The book contains the complete CML 1.0 (Second Edition) specification and details the new W3C schema specification recommendation. For a handy, up-to-date guide, Web developers don't need to look any farther!
XML Complete introduces you to the work of some of Sybex's finest authors, so you'll know where to go to learn even more about XML./p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
XHMTL Newbies Beware!
This was my first XML book. Reason? It's two inches thick and the most inexpensive I could find. Only after I bought it did I realize that it's an anthology of snippets from other Sybex titles. That's the reason they can sell it at a lower price (apart from the fact that it uses newsprint). Also the reason why I couldn't find the author's name on the cover!
As for quality it's good enough for XML newbies (like me). The basics are all there in the first few chapters. It covers a lot of ground including namespaces, DTDs, schemas, and other stuff I haven't even begun reading.
It even includes practically everything you need to know to author in XHTML, which is practically nil if you already are HTML savvy. Advice to the HTML-aware designers: Don't get gypped into purchasing XHTML books. Invest your hard earned money in XML titles instead, preferably from O'Reilly. Me, biased?
After reading the first hundred pages and grasping the main concepts you can begin authoring in XML (usually with some help from other XML books). If you want to see your XML files rendered by a browser you'll have to get Netscape 6.x or better yet whatever the current Mozilla build is... I don't recommend Opera not even the latest version (6.01) since its CSS support is not as complete. Moreover, Opera processes JavaScript codes approximately a hundred times slower! than Internet Explorer. As for IE my version IE5.5 only displays the XML parse tree.
ATTENTION! There's one unforgivable blunder by the Sybex editors: They've included XHTML chapters from its _Mastering XHMTL_ without having them properly reviewed! Even as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has deprecated (a euphemism meaning on death row and marked for execution without a shred of hope for amnesty or pardon)) a good number of (X)HTML elements the book still continues to promote their use by teaching readers how to implement them. Although time and again the authors say use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is recommended they merely pay lip service to their own tips and tell beginners how to set color using bgcolor, font faces using the font element, etc, rather than devote those same pages to introductory CSS. This totally defeats the purpose of XML and the objectives of W3C.
To those who are just about to step into world of web design and those who are switching from HTML to XHMTL: Go for XHTML Strict immediately and use CSS exclusively to instruct browsers how to render your pages. That's the correct way to do it. A properly marked up document should *not* contain instructions for its presentation (e.g. display on your monitor).
To Sybex: Pull this edition out and get those XHTML chapters revised immediately! You're teaching beginners how to start off on the wrong foot!
Hodge-podge!
This book is a cut-n-paste from numerous other Sybex books. Skip it! Buy the other books ... this one jumps all over the map, often referring to other books or chapters ahead in the current book. Very annoying and a difficult way to learn!