Rating:  - As good as technical writing gets
I bought this book primarily because of reader reviews. I would like to personally thank each reviewer who used words like "superb" or "excellent", but this will have to do. I struggled with the baffling, cryptic XML Schema spec for years and would not have supposed this subject could be discussed with such clarity. I give it the highest compliment I can pay a technical book: it seems so simple.
Rating: - Many insights, not mere facts.
There are quite a few books about XML Schema in the market. There are quite a few freebie tutorials on the web too. These may serve your purpose well enough if you are merely trying to acquire an overview of the subject. But if you are like me, learning XML schema on the job and having trouble finding specific answers as you design a new schema or worse extend an exisiting schema, this book is certainly for you.
Namespaces are a fairly complex topic and they are handled very well in this textbook. Much of my confusion about how to mix and match the SimpleContent, SimpleType, ComplexContent and ComplexType tags vanished after I read the relevant chapters. The last chapter on reuse and extension is a gem and shows that Walmsley is not one of the rapidly proliferating clan of writers whose chapters are mere rephrasings of the manuals. She brings impressive credentials from the W3C and it shows in each page.
I was in the middle of extending a schema when I ran out and bought this book. I ran into some truly murky waters with deterministic and non deterministic schemas when my Microsoft XML parser threw up its hands and refused to validate my XML against my XSD because it was non deterministic. I could find few satisfactory solutions elsewhere. This book gave me all the answers I needed.
If you are a serious schema developer, buy this book, its well worth the money.
Rating: - Great, clear coverage of XML Schema
I'm new to XML, Schemas, etc. This is my first book regarding XML, and I feel like I came away with a lot of knowledge from it. I'm sure you can get the table of contents from other reviews and from Amazon's "sneak peeks", so I'll forego that and get on with personal opinion. Walmsley has a nice, clear writing style that only requires one read to grasp her points. Yes, I understand that most (if not all) of this material is living for free on one or more web sites, but I prefer to have it all in one well-written book. This was definitely worth the money.
Rating: - A superb book.
The best technical book I've read in ages. I read this book cover to cover, with ease. The text is clear and well organized, and the use of examples is very appropriate. A lot of practical advice is given, especially in the sections labeled "Design Hint." The cross-referencing from the appendix makes it easy to use this book as a reference, too. I normally go straight to the spec to learn technologies, but the Schema spec is rough reading; this book makes it all seem so reasonable and simple.
Rating: - Very Helpful
Priscilla seems to know when to reinforce a point. She points out many pitfalls that schema authors can fall in into. This book was well worth the money. I will be redesigning more than one of my schemas based on this technical information.
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