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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Decent tutorials, very poor explanations, editing, and reference, February 24, 2008
This review is from: New Perspectives on XML, Second Edition, Comprehensive (New Pespectives) (Paperback)
To be fair, I am not a fan of the Thompson Course Technology books in general. But this is the first one that actually drove me to write a negative review to spare some innocent XML programmer-to-be the confusion this book will likely cause.
Our local community college unfortunately requires this text (a fair percentage of the classes seem to use Course Technology books because of the pre-fab quizzes, Powerpoints, and online supplements available to the instructors who can't be bothered to make their own).
The good: The Chapters are called "Tutorials" and in general, if you can read and copy the tutorials line for line, you will be able to get them to validate. However, you probably won't understand why in many cases.
The ugly: Like most of the Course Technology textbooks I've seen, there are significant typos and the explanations are very poor and awkward. There is little or no rigor in defining terms, the author often uses a tangential example as an adequate explanation for the entire concept.
Many explanations are as clear as mud. Case in point p. 199 (which is only partially understandable to me because I've taken a few computer classes (including C++ object oriented programming) and the concept of scope is familiar to me, even if the word is never mentioned here):
"In XML Schema, any element or attribute that is declared globally has to be entered as a qualified name in the instance document. The reason is that global elements and attributes are added to the target namespace, while local objects are not. Local objects are interpreted based on the namespace affiliation of the object in which they're nested. Because global objects are attached to the namespace, they have to be qualified in the instance document with a namespace prefix. The target namespace applies the document validation through the qualified elements in the instance document using them as the starting points for the validation process. You can't go down the hierarchy and validate only the local elements and attributes."
And that was a relatively clear passage. Even if you understand the concept, you are unlikely to get the syntax exactly correct. This book has singlehandedly caused me to consider a campaign to our department dean to stop using Course Technology books, and search for a decent textbook substitute. This book is of little use in class, and will be even less useful as a handy reference.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book SUCKS!!!!, March 19, 2009
This review is from: New Perspectives on XML, Second Edition, Comprehensive (New Pespectives) (Paperback)
This POS is a required textbook for the XML class that I'm currently taking. If any of you reading this review are in the process of taking an XML course I have some advice to give you. If the instructor "requires" the use of this textbook, do NOT take it. (see review below by a classmate)
I've had to resort to buying a 2nd book to supplement the junk reading from this book.
The author is very indecisive when he explains topics and examples. Once you start to feel as if you are getting the hang of something, you suddenly find yourself lost in the desert without a map.
I am definitely frustrated that the case problems used in this textbook were more based on nit picky legalese wording, rather than the functions that the author used in his examples. XML is NOT a law course, so what is up with all the wording mumbo jumbo?
Overall I've lost much respect for the textbook publisher Thompson, in allowing such an incompetent textbook to be published by an author who may know his stuff, but has the tendency to jump the gun with the case problems. Did the publisher not review the contents and find the numerous contradictions in this textbook?
The worst part is that the author and publisher had the audacity to charge a ridiculous price for a book which should be in the $10 clearance bin.
After my recent homework assignments, I really wonder if the author's malicious writing was purported or unintentional ....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Miserable, October 20, 2009
This review is from: New Perspectives on XML, Second Edition, Comprehensive (New Pespectives) (Paperback)
Unfortunately, this i the text book required for my college's online XML course. This is the third Thompson Course Technology New Perspectives book I've had to purchase for a class, and it is by far the worst. I had no real problems with the "HTML and XHTML" or "Javascript" books. This XML book on the other hand offers poor explanations of concepts, and code examples that don't always work. Some chapters mention concepts, barely explain them, and then require they be used as part of the case problems to end the chapter. If I wanted to learn XML by searching the internet I wouldn't have purchased an $80 book. A mistake or two would be forgivable, but this book continually amazes me with how bad it is.
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