Book details of 'XML in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)'

Title	XML in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)
Author(s)	Elliotte Rusty Harold, W. Scott Means
ISBN	0596000588
Language	English
Published	January 2001
Publisher	O'Reilly & Associates

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'XML in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Continuing in the tradition of the Nutshell series, XML in a Nutshell provides a dense tutorial on its subject, as well as a useful day-to-day reference. While the reader isn't expected to have prior expertise in XML, this book is most effective as an add-on to a more introductory tutorial because of its relatively fast pace. The authors set out to systematically--and rapidly--cover the basics of XML first, namely the history of the markup language and the various languages and technologies that compose the standard. In this first section, they discuss the basics of XML markup, Document Type Definitions (DTDs), namespaces, and Unicode. From there, the authors move into "narrative-centric documents" in a section that appropriately focuses on the application of XML to books, articles, Web pages and other readable content. This book definitely presupposes in the reader an aptitude for picking up concepts quickly and for rapidly building cumulative knowledge. Code examples are used--only to illustrate the particular point in question--but not in excess. The book gets into "data-centric" XML, exploring the difference between the object-driven Document Object Model (DOM) and the event-driven Simple API for XML (SAX). However, these areas are a little underpowered and offer a bit less detail about this key area than the reader will expect. At the core of any Nutshell book is the reference section, and the installment found inside this text is no exception. Here, the XML 1.0 standard, XPath, XSLT, DOM, SAX, and character sets are covered. Some material that is covered earlier in the book--such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)--is not re-articulated, however. XML in a Nutshell is not the only book on XML you should have, but it is definitely one that no XML coder should be without. --Stephen W. Plain Topics covered: XML history Document Type Definitions (DTDs) Namespaces Internationalization XML-based data formats XHTML XSL XPath XLink XPointer Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) XSL-FO Document Object Model (DOM) Simple API for XML (SAX)
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
As usual, the Nutshell book contains pretty much all you need to know about XML, the eXtensible Markup Language. Part one covers XML concepts and basics, with an introduction, the fundamentals of XML structure and syntax, an outline of document type definitions (DTDs), a review of the idea of namespaces for definition sharing, and a look at the provisions for internationalization. The material is clear: it may be sparse in some places, but anyone with an intermediate technical background should be able to follow the theory. Part two explains XML from a narrative document perspective, starting with a very lucid explanation of the conceptual roots in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and then moving to the new protocols with XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language), XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) for style sheet creation and XSLT for document transformations, XPath for compound documents, XLinks for link definition and creation, XPointer (a kind of search function for non-indexed documents), and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and XSL for document output. Non-narrative, or data oriented, documents are explained in Part three, with reviews of XML as a data format, programming models, the Document Object Model (DOM), and SAX (the Simple API [Application Programming Interface] for XML). All of this material is, in a sense, mere preface. The heart of the books of the Nutshell series is the reference section. Still, the foregoing chapters are definitely useful for anyone starting out with XML, since XML is subject to a great deal of hype, and not very much hard explanation. Parts two and three, particularly, help to sort out the various pieces of the XML puzzle. Part four, though, is up to the usual Nutshell reference standard, with chapters on XML 1.0, XPath, XSLT, DOM, SAX, and the various character sets, including Unicode. For those working with XML a valuable resource, and for those starting out an invaluable guide. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2001
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Book description:

XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, is a W3C-endorsed standard for document markup. Because of its ability to deliver portable data, XML is positioned to be a key Web-application technology. Given the complexity and incredible potential of this powerful markup language, it is clear that every serious developer using XML for data or text formatting and transformation will need a comprehensive, easy-to-access desktop reference in order to take advantage of XML's full potential. XML in a Nutshell will assist developers in formatting files and data structures correctly for use in XML documents. XML defines a basic syntax used to mark up data with simple, human-readable tags, and provides a standard format for computer documents. This format is flexible enough to be customized for transforming data between applications as diverse as web sites, electronic data interchange, voice-mail systems, and wireless devices, to name a few. Developers can either write their own programs that interact with, massage, and manipulate the data in XML documents, or they can use off-the-shelf software like web browsers and text editors to work with XML documents. Either choice gives them access to a wide range of free libraries in a variety of languages that can read and write XML. The XML specification defines the exact syntax this markup must follow: how elements are delimited by tags, what a tag looks like, what names are acceptable for elements, where attributes are placed, and so forth. XML doesn't have a fixed set of tags and elements that are supposed to work for everybody in all areas of interest for all time. It allows developers and writers to define the elements they need as they need them. Although XML is quite flexible in the elements it allows to be defined, it is quite strict in many other respects. XML in a Nutshell covers the fundamental rules that all XML documents and authors must adhere to, detailing the grammar that specifies where tags may be placed, what they must look like, which element names are legal, how attributes attach to elements, and much more.