Customer Reviews

Charles F. Goldfarb's XML Handbook (5th Edition) (Charles F. Goldfarb Definitive XML Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this book you can find almost any applications of XML, including the latest development of Web services and VoiceXML.

It's especially for students who want to look for a project/thesis topic on XML or CTOs who wish to understand the business various scenarios where XML can be applied.

Admittedly, with 69 chapters in about 1100 pages, this book cannot have too much depth. Don't expect to use it as a daily programming reference book. It's more like a jump board that can set you in a specific direction of the XML world --- Then you should consult a more detailed book on that specific topic. It also introduces the various business software around XML.

Besides, this book is very entertaining.

The fifth edition of the XML Handbook is an interesting beast all in
itself. It's huge. The size of no other 'handbook' I have ever read,
weighing in at 1200 pages. My guess is that this book has grown from
edition to edition and has become the beast we see now. Starting with
the negative:

* The organization of the book needs work. The chapters are in an
almost random order. For example, the chapter that describes XML at an
introductory level is number 51, which is almost at the back of the
book.

* The organization of each chapter needs to be normalized into a format
that would ensure that each possesses valuable information. This book
is somewhat similar to the classic Design Patterns book in that it
covers a wide variety of topics. Having a chapter format that readers
can follow will make it easier to use the book as a reference work.

* The graphics are inconsistent at best. Some are horrible in quality.
Others are too large. I wouldn't have bought the book if I were
flipping through it at the store. The quality of the graphics, which
seem to be largely borrowed company graphics, is too inconsistent.

* The chapters are very short. There are 69 chapters in a 1200 page
book. You do the math. The chapter on XSL:FO, for example, is six pages
long. Barely enough text to introduce the topic, let alone explain it.

* The book is not self-referential. For example, the topic of vector
versus bitmap graphics is covered twice. And the chapter on acronyms
simply lists their definitions without pointing the reader back into
the book for more information about where those acronyms are explained
in more detail. My guess is that this is an outgrowth of the organic
development of the book.

All that being said, I am still giving the book a good rating because I
believe that it is a unique resource in the XML world. It's chapters
cover a variety of topics so sweeping that it provides a high level
overview of the entire map of XML development. Chapter 66, which
provides an overview of all of the different MLs is very good. Other
chapters, such as the RDF chapter (36) are also a very good
introduction. The breadth of the coverage is what makes this book
unique. All of the drill-down technology specifics are covered better
in other books.

Is it worth buying? Tough to say. I think for someone tasked with a
high-level understanding of XML it is a valuable resource because it
provides an excellent tree-top perspective of the XML landscape. For
someone who is thick in the implementation of XML standards, it's
probably not worth it.

What the book really needs is a thorough development editing pass to
reorganize the book, normalize the chapters, remove redundant content,
and to fix the problems with the illustrations and the text.

This book does have a wide array of topics, but no depth. There is a lot of history, which is to be expected from a guy who invented something like SGML. It's a big and heavy book with little practical material. Mostly academic, historical, and weak on details. Many chapters were not written by the authors listed on the front, but by vendors, and some of their material looks like marketing BS.

In a few places it mentions specific tools, but most of it is hand-waving, "this stuff can do everything in the world" sort of material. The tutorials are very sketchy, and the chapters on how to do DTDs and schemas are incomplete. The basic information about XML itself isn't even covered until you've plowed through 760 pages. A lot of theory and almost no practice - and the practice there is, is so basic and incomplete that it's not worth the effort to read.

The two CD's contain mostly 30-day trial shovelware you could download off the web for free - not the "175 genuinely free software packages" touted on the front cover. A lot of those "175 packages" are in fact just W3C specifications. It's the kind of book you want on your shelf if you want others to think you're technical. If you don't know anything about XML and need some technical knowledge, go ahead and get it. If you are a programmer or anyone looking for details on things like schemas, DTDs and syntax, look elsewhere.

A more useful, more concise and much cheaper alternative would be CodeNotes for XML, by Gregory Brill.

I read the entire book and some parts of it twice. It is perhaps the most organized book that I have ever read. It starts simple and moves to the complex. It is not a programmer's cookbook. It is an explanatory text and that is all that it claims to be. If you know little of XML this is an excellent place to start. If you think you know a lot about XML you will probably find much that you did not know in its 1200 pages.

If you want to immediately start writing code that uses XML, then you need another book. This book has many good examples of code fragments designed to teach specific concepts. It does not try to build complete applications. It does have a section to refer you to other books that do lead you through complete projects. The author even maintains a web site listing "All the XML Books in Print" at http://www.xmlbooks.com.

Any review takes on much from the perspective of the reviewer. I am not connected with the author or the publisher or anyone else connected with this book. I am an amateur programmer who writes educational software as a hobby. My real job is as mayor of a city. Although I have marked up student responses and stored XML segments in a relational database, I have never used the real power of XML. From this book and the more code-oriented books that I have ordered (from the author's recommended list) I think I will soon be able to use XML even for my simple uses.

I bought this book being completely convinced that it was a complete reference on the basic XML technologies along with an introduction to XML, XML's history and development and so on. It shows up to my disappointment, that the book is largely influenced by a number of corporations using XML to make money, and is therefore *not* focussed very much on the actual technologies.
On the back of the book one gets the impression that the book is indeed focussed on teaching the reader how to apply XML in ones own applications, and how XML can be used in various contexts in the future. The authors choose to treat the matter differently, and thereby fail to provide an actually useful reference book.
As it has been mentioned, XSL-FO only took up 6 pages, which for me was more than a severe disappointment - I don't feel like spending $60+ on the rest of this series which this book recommends its readers to do.
This book mainly functions as an introduction to XML on a corporate level, and thereafter it only accomplishes to refer to other books in the "CFG DXS" series. For myself, as a web-developer, I don't find this book very useful. It *is* interesting in some sections, and also somewhat entertaining at times, but this question rises: Does that justify reading over 1100 pages and spending more than $30 on this book? I would say no.

I have never disliked a technical book more than this one. The table of contents looks great - lots of coverage of everything having to do with XML. The content though, is very disappointing. For the most part, every topic is covered at a very high level and the author's biases are very generously woven throughout. I found several cases of overstatements and omissions of accurate information. (Perhaps it is already out of date?)

This book might be good for someone trying to get a high level view of all that XML is capable of infiltrating. For anyone that wants any real technical content, this will be a big disappointment.

At 1200 pages this book is probably one of the most complete references that one can have. It covers every conceivable topic, ranging from a good description of XML and how it evolved from SGML, to semantic web and web services (each of which are disciplines onto themselves).

Expected topics are given in-depth treatment (XML, schemas, DTDs, datatypes, XSLT, XSL-FO, XLink, XPath, XPointer, XSDL, namespaces, topic maps, RDF, SOAP, UDDI, WSDL and VoiceXML), with a focus on the following:
- integration of XML and the older EDI approaches to e-commerce and extended supply chain systems
- a sound approach to content management
- how XML fits into the web services framework
- chapters on important topics such as portals, databases, content acquisition, conversion and publishing
- a series of chapters devoted to tutorials on XML basics, schemas, and transformation and navigation protocols

In addition this book comes with two CD ROMs that are packed with applications such as IBM's AlphaWorks suite and NeoCore XMS Native XML Database (Personal Edition). A trial version of TurboXML IDE & Schema Editor is also included among the 175 programs on the CD ROM set.

This is an overwhelming book for beginners, but is a valuable resource for anyone who is deeply involved in web services, XML and related technologies. If you fit the latter category this is probably the only XML reference you'll need.

There is nothing in this book's title or product description that indicates that it teaches XML programming. If that's the type of book you're seeking I recommend "Definitive XML Application Development" by Lars Marius Garshol. If, however, you're an architect, chief technical officer or IT functional manager this book will provide you with one of the most complete and comprehensive descriptions of XML that's available.

What you get is a thorough examination of XML, from its SGML beginnings to what it has evolved into, how to use it to solve real business problems, and the related specifications. Because this book is over 1200 pages it can be overwhelming. However, you need not read it in sequence, or even cover-to-cover to get value. It's a reference and a business case combined, and is best used as a resource in the architecture group or shared among developers who need to ensure that what is being developed is in line with W3C specifications. In addition, the overwhelming array of applications that come on the two CD ROMs will save a lot of time downloading trial copies from their vendors, and give you many choices to evaluate for internal use. It also saves expensive developer (or consultant) time and corporate bandwidth.

If you work with XML you'll find this book to be one of the best general references you can own. Better yet, get "The Definitive XML Professional Toolkit", which contains this book and two others, and you'll have a ready-made XML reference library.

It might not be enough for the code gurus, but then it all goes to the tools you're using: for example XML programming has different flavors if you're using .NET instead of Java.
For documents, schemas, etcetera and to get you on a page with the standard this has all the information you need.
It's a "handbook", a good one too.

I have this book as well. I bought it expecting it to be the end-all, be-all of XML books...it was the end-of-all my interest in learning xml for quite about a year. The book is VERY informative, at a very HIGH level. The tutorials are lackluster, and not as robust as the back of the book and the Table of Contents would lead you to believe. I looked at a couple of people who gave this book five stars, and all I could think is "they must be paid to write this stuff professionally!" I'm not saying that they do (for legal reasons among others), but it does make you wonder.... James L. Fuqua has given nothing but five stars for his three or four reviews, and ART SEDIGHI has a WHOPPINg 8 pages of 5 star reviews. Very detailed reviews mind you, but all five stars. Anybook I see that's been reviewed by him goes onto my 'this book is suspect' list immediately. I cannot believe that that man has read and bough 8 pages of technical books and find that they ALL warrant 5 stars....

In short. Don't buy this book. If you're looking for a good XML book I've heard <<Applied XML Solutions>> is a good one (for advanced topics). I've ordered it but haven't gone through it yet, and <<Step By Step XML>> is supposed to be a good starter. I've browsed through it but can't give a ringing endorsement yet. AllI can say is AVOID Charle's F. GoldFarb and anybook written by him (or at least the XML HANDBOOK, 5th EDITION. IT SUCKS!!!!)