Rating:  - The XML book you should own
Imagine you are given the opportunity to ask one of the leading experts on XML 50 questions. And further imagine that this expert will answer those questions clearly and completely. You can stop imagining because Elliotte Rusty Harold has done exactly that in this book. Whether you are a relative newbie or an experienced XML developer, you will find useful information in this book. Should I use DOM or SAX? What's the right way to encode binary data? When should I use processing instructions? Should I use XML 1.1? Do I really need to parse my documents? This is just a random sample of the questions that Harold answers in this book. Every page contains valuable information. Harold is unusual in that even though he is an expert he still remembers what it is like to not know something. His explanations don't leave any blanks that you need to fill in. There are no jumps from point A to point Z without taking you through the points in between.
So who should buy this book? Anyone who has some knowledge of XML who is interested in working with XML the right way. Whether you are developing applications to process or create an XML document or whether you are simply designing an XML document you need to read this book. Once you understand the basics of XML, this book will take you to the next step of being able to work with XML effectively.
Rating: - Five Star PLUS, low fat book for the mature developer
This book was extremely pleasant to read. The format of the book (essentially 50 essays related to XML) gave the author the possibility just to talk about the topics he was really interested in, to talk about. There is no stuff in the book, which he also had to say just for the sake of being complete.
The claim for this book is, that you already have to know quite a bit, before reading it. Well you have to know something, but knowledge is really not the point here. It is more something like software maturity. So if you are fond of maturity: this is your book.
Thanks to the author for that great present to us.
Rating: - Make room on your bookshelf
This book is targeted towards developers with a good knowledge of XML. While the book is very instructional, it is not a tutorial. Rather, it is a collection of tips for building better XML applications. The subtitle is an apt description, "50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML".
The book is divided into four topics with the 50 tips spread among them. Part 1 is based on Syntax, Part 2 is about Structure, Part 3 reflects Semantics, and Part 4 focuses on implementation. Each item (or tip) has a brief explanation followed by a more detailed explanation and examples of the problems and remedies. The book can be read in any order with one exception. The author includes a very nice bit in the Introduction. While in many books this is the part that most people skip or read later; do not succumb to that temptation. The author reviews many of the XML terms that are points of confusion in order to acclimate the reader into the way they will be used in the book.
One of the most refreshing parts of the book is way that the author is very upfront about delivering his opinion. For example, Item 3 "Stay with XML 1.0" states, "Everything that you need to know about XML 1.1 can be summed up in two rules.
1.Don't use it.
2.(For experts only) If you speak Mongolian, Yi, ... you can set the version attribute of the XML declaration to 1.1. Otherwise, refer to rule 1."
Afterwards, he delivers a lengthy and well-expressed defense of this position.
This book definitely deserves consideration for some shelf space if you work with XML, perhaps along side the "XML Bible" and "Processing XML with Java".
Rating: - The 2nd XML book any XML developer should read.
OK, you read your XML Primer. You think you understand DTDs, you did some XML Schemas and even wrote an XSLT. You think you're ready to write an XML app... instead, get Elliotte's "Effective XML" to prepare you for real world XML applications.
This book provide's a wealth of knowledge, even if you already developed a number of XML applications and you are at a more senior or architect level. It's well deserving to be part of the "Effective XXX" series.
Rating: - A must have for the serious XML practitioner
There are plenty of generic XML books out there, plus a bunch of titles that focus on specific XML applications or XML related topics (SOAP, XSLT, XML Schema etc); what Mr Harold delivered this time is something different, that really stands out from everything else available at the time of this writing. This book is about best practices, patterns and anti-patterns, and about how to use XML correctly and efficiently. As with other titles from the same author, this book is a pleasure to read, clean, informative and well structured. In my opinion a must have for the serious XML practitioner. Be advised this is not a book for beginners, the author takes for granted you already mastered the fundamentals of XML and many related technologies like DTD, Schema or Namespace. In order to really get the best out of it you better have some experience using XML under your belt.
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