Customer Reviews

Just Xml

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this book in July 1999 after comparing it to many others on the market and reading Amazon comments like this one. This book has many virtues and many shortcomings. John Simpson is an entertaining writer, and one gets the sense he is just as fascinated by the content of his example XML document (B films) as XML programming itself. The book explains things extraordinarily well, although from the first 75 pages one might think that Simpson is perhaps simplifying too much (after all, most of his readers probably have a good foundation already in HTML to pick up this book). The other Amazon comments by professional programmers criticize the book for not being a good reference guide, for not describing enough detail and for getting sidetracked by miscellaneous non-programming related topics. These complaints are valid to an extent, but they miss the point. This is a good book for an introduction to the basic commands and some of the advanced ones. It's to be assumed that after reading this kind of book, the reader could find additional reference material from XML Bible or the W3 website.

I thought the main example used throughout the book really explained the concepts well, and I appreciate how carefully the author tried to discuss topics that might be subject to revision by future W3 recommendations. I also appreciate how the author, anticipating possible exasperation with his film digressions, boxed them in, so they could be easily skipped over in reading (heck, I might even read them later). I have two major complaints. First, it's unfortunate that the book is not connected to a supplemental website with XML updates, corrections, code and tutorials. I am reading, Joe Burns' "JavaScript Goodies,". It contains problems, exercises and answers from the book. Perhaps future editions might be encouraged to emphasized the tutorial aspect more so than the reference guide aspect. Another "complaint" is that the book is shorter than it is. Although 376 pages, the first 40 or 50 pages were overview, every chapter had its own glossary, there were several half-blank pages at ends of chapters and some of the discussions of XML development tools seem to be outdated by now. (These might be better addressed on an accompanying web page). So what you're getting in reality is 225-250 of excellent explanation. Definitely well worth the money.

Writers of Perl and XML books think that they're comedians. Hint: they're not. If I want some laughs I'll watch an old episode of Seinfeld-not buy this XML book.

This book's title and the author's comments suggest that you can learn XML from his book without already knowing HTML. In fact, he tells the reader to "put away the wheelbarrows full of knowledge and predispositions you may have acquired about SGML, HTML ..." (page xi). And on the following page Simpson states that "in order to understand and use XML productively" you don't have to know anything about SGML or HTML. He's correct. But if you want to learn XML from 'this book' you do have to really know them. With everything he discusses, he does so by making reference to HTML. Thus the book is totally resistant to comprehension without this prior knowledge. In fact, a more appropriate title would be "XML for those who thoroughly know HTML"

Under the new premises, this book is still way below average.

I am a software developer and I like books that provide information, definitions and examples QUICKLY, in an easy to absorb format. "Just XML" seems to meander all over the place and is rife with vacuous anecdotes in attempts to illustrate relatively simple concepts. This book might be good for someone who doesn't have any background in programming or html, but for me it was just too darn slow-paced and didn't contain enough examples (in fact, the entire book contains only *one* (completely artificial) example!).

Here's a quote from the preface: "...I'm not an SGML guru. In fact, before beginning this book, I knew virtually nothing at all about it." Ho can this inspire confidence in the author's abilities?

Not a good choice if you are under time-constraints and must learn as much about XML in as short a time as possible.

I tried to read this book for a project I'm working on, but found this book is full of useless contents, which confused me and wasted my time. A year ago, I took a train class of XML, and am quite familiar with the technology. I don't recommand anyone to read this book, except those who mean to spend their spare time.

Ok this book is BIG disappointment for some people and for someit's entertaining. Well I don't see that these two schools ofthought have any thing to say against each other. Any way, buy this book if you want to learn about XML in a fun way. It's not technical so you hard-core-programming-book lovers stay out. I read this book when I started XML. Why I picket it because it didn't seem that heavy. Any way now here I am on my XML highway more or less satisfied with this book. Its definitely lacks some important things like schema... Watch out for its new edition when it hits market. Ok here are my final words: If you are casual in nature go for this. If you hate B-Movie or FUN-Way of learning something don't buy it.

This book is really annoying for someone who has programming and CS expirence. It takes over 50 pages to explain the basic syntax of a DTD, and there isn't a brief summary of the syntax anywhere.

If you know what a regular expression is, you will find it annoying wade through a 20 page excercise walk-through (using post-it notes!) to get the synax: i.e. "[If] it will always be in a document at least once, and possibly more ...[a couple lines cut out]... pencil in a plus sign (+)." ARRRGH!

If you only know HTML or if you only read every 10th word, this might be the book for you.

I didn't pay for this book (I checked it out from my local library), and I started reading at Chapter 7 (XML and CSS), but I enjoy the author's style. Having written a couple of technical books myself, I understand the pressure to just parrot the spec or the manual and I am pleased to see that Simpson brings real thoughtfulness to his subject. Instead of describing the syntax of CSS, he explains "the style problem" that led to SGML and offers one reason why HTML is more popular than earlier technologies. Then he describes the syntax.

Reading other, more negative reviews, I wanted to add my positive opinion of the book. Perhaps some of those who were disappointed were hoping for more of a verbose spec, or a canned application. I prefer the thoughtful FAQ that this book seems to be.

With great regards to the author's vast experience, I must say, I am quite unhappy with the way this book has been written. My specific criticisms are:

1) It fails to give the overall picture about XML. I think a better way to start is to take an XML example first and then explain the individual parts (elements and entities, etc.) rather than discussing them in gory details first, leaving it to readers to understand the "bigger picture".

2) My main criticism is about the examples used in the book to draw parallel. I think the author could have done a better job without the oversimplification. Some examples (men in the elevator and Metcalfe's square law) seem totally irrelevant to the topic they are trying to explain. It takes more effort to understand the correlation between the examples and their underlying XML equivalents than understanding the XML thing itself.

3) I think technical books should be written in a formal language. Examples and other "intelligent" and "jovial" remarks should be used only when necessary and sparingly (maybe to break the monotony). The "casual" style in which this book is written takes the main emphasis out. The focus/purpose of the book should never be lost. I am sorry, but I have a different mindset and purpose when I read "Just XML" than when I read "Star Wars".

I can add more to this list, but I feel I have made my point. I like to read technical books which are technical (ofcourse), formal, refrain from oversimplification and give the overall picture (not Just XML).

Obviously a book that people either love or hate! All 1, 2, or 5 stars. Well, count me as one who loves it because I think the author's done something pretty amazing. He's made XML accessible to me. I'm not stupid or technically incompetent, just someone who'd like to use XML to display stuff on the Web.

In the negative reviews, people seem upset that Just XML wasn't written for them--CS, Jave programmers, and similar types who are looking for some kind of a reference book. Just XML isn't one of those books full of tables of commands and screen shots (except for one chapter, covering XML software). On the other hand, most of the people I know never know what to do with those books either.

The author says in his comments here and at his website that XML can be used for a lot of complicated tasks. You can make up an XML markup vocabulary for operating the space shuttle, I guess, or for reporting on currency rates of exchange. In my working life (for food wholesaler), I don't know anything about the space shuttle or currency exchange rates, so I appreciate the author's problem--how to satisfy me as a reader as well as the people who are into much "bigger" businesses. I, personally, liked the B movie examples. They're clear and understandable. And just when I was afraid of getting lost, he threw in a joke or a funny story or a B movie review and I was okay again.

Not counting the writing style, the best thing about Just XML's content is its chapters on the two XML linking standards, Xlink and Xpointer. Even though those two standards aren't final yet, the author does an excellent job of explaining why HTML linking isn't good enough and why the new standards will help solve the problems. Before reading Just XML, I don't think the notion of a multi-directional or out-of-line link would have made any sense at all to me. Now, I can't wait to try things like that in my own web pages.

The one problem with Just XML is the chapter on the Extensible Style Language. Since the book came out, the proposed XSL standard has already changed drastically. I hope a second edition will fix it.

One or two stars? No way.

This could have been a very solid book if the author had worked with a good editor. All the content seems to be there, but I fear one must read the book from cover to cover in order to find it.

Just as annoying as the structure is all the irrelevent, silly, and personal content included. Throughout the book whole pages are devoted to "B Alert"'s: reviews of low-budget movies the author has enjoyed (the only tie-in being that an XML language for building a movie database is this text's running example), and there are numerous references to unrelated personal experiences the author has had. Very distracting.

I think this book was an attempt by Prentice Hall to imitate the process which has been so successful for O'Reilly: hire technical people with real-world experience to write the manuals. Without strong editorial control, however, this process appears to fall apart. As much as I'd like to break away from the O'Reilly monopoly, I fear they are still the publisher to trust.