New Perspectives on XML, Second Edition, Comprehensive (New Pespectives) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Updated to teach the most current XML standards, this book uses real-world case studies and a practical, step-by-step approach to teach XML. It provides extensive coverage of DTDs, namespaces, schemas, Cascading Style Sheets, XSLT, XPath, and programming with the WSC document object model.

About the Author

Patrick Carey received his M.S. in Biostatistics from the University of Wisconsin, where he worked as a researcher designing and analyzing clinical studies. He co-authored his first textbook on using Excel as a statistical tool. Patrick has authored or co-authored over 20 academic and trade texts for the software industry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology; 2 edition (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418860646
• ISBN-13: 978-1418860646
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #309,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Decent tutorials, very poor explanations, editing, and reference, February 24, 2008

By	L. Anderson (California United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book SUCKS!!!!, March 19, 2009

By	Congniscenti - See all my reviews

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 ....

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just plain awful, March 16, 2009

By	Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I am usually loath to say anything negative about any book I review, but in this case I'll make an exception. The tutorials in this book are poor, many concepts in the book are either not explained or explained so badly or quickly, reading the chapter several times will not help you understand the material any better. I had to get this book for an XML class I'm taking. I had to buy another XML book to understand the topics being discussed. What I discovered was that the other book often contradicts the material this author writes about. For example, this book's author claims that DTD's will eventually be made obsolete. And yet another book I have on XML claims DTD's are useful for a few select purposes. It makes me wonder if this book's author was describing a different kind of XML than the one I'm supposed to be studying. I've had extreme difficulty understanding and completing three different class assignments on material this book was supposed to cover already and the class is only half over.

If you are required to buy this text for an XML class, do one of three things:

1) Drop the class and take it somewhere else where this book is not required.
2) Buy an additional XML book that actually describes the material instead of trying to obscure it as this book seems intent on doing.
3) Throw it away.