XML Black Book: The Most Comprehensive Resource for XML - The Next Hot Language for the World Wide Web! [Paperback]

Natanya Pitts-Moultis (Author), Cheryl Kirk (Author)

Book Description

Series: Black Book (Coriolis Group Books Paperback) | Publication Date: November 18, 1998

Covers in detail XML tool features and availability, including support within other applications. Demonstrates successful implementation of XML projects. Includes a strong focus on publishing corporate information over intranets.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

XML is one of those topics that demands that you digest traditional tutorial information and learn how this language is implemented in the real world. XML Black Book compiles a large set of this information to explain this next generation of Web technology.

The first part of the book introduces XML and covers everything from the history of markup languages to how to use XML in a corporate intranet. Each chapter in the book starts with an "In Depth" section, which frames the information, and ends with a section called "Immediate Solutions," which provides quick examples of how to perform common tasks.

In the second part of the book, the authors pick apart XML, detailing how Document Type Definitions (DTDs), elements, and attributes all work together. This part also covers Xlink, Xpointers, and XML processors. Most tutorials would end at this point, but this hefty book continues with coverage of XML style sheets and XML applications that are out there in the real world such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Common Data Format (CDF).

The book also presents tools that help you convert to and process XML and presents a nice look at real Web sites that use XML. A companion CD-ROM contains a number of shareware tools, code, and links to mentioned URLs. This work is a powerful and comprehensive way to learn XML and put your new skills to work. --Stephen W. Plain

About the Author

Cheryl Kirk (Anchorage, Alaska) has been providing computer consulting expertise to Fortune 500 companies for the past 14 years and has written or cowritten nine computer books. She is a computer columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, regular contributor to the Baltimore Sun's techonology section, and cohost of the radio show Computer.Radio.

Natanya Pitts (Austin, TX) is an accomplished Webmaster and corporate trainer, as well as a published author. Her publications include the Official BBEdit Book, Webmaster Macintosh, Hip Pocket Guide to HTML 3.2, The HTML Style Sheets Design Guide, and Dynamic HTML Black Book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group; Bk&CD-Rom edition (November 18, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157610284X
• ISBN-13: 978-1576102848
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,386,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I have no idea how this book made it on the shelf, October 7, 1999

By 

Brian Chytka ([e-mail]) (Corvallis, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML Black Book: The Most Comprehensive Resource for XML - The Next Hot Language for the World Wide Web! (Paperback)

This is definately the WORST book I have ever read. The authors constantly repeat material. The whole of the book is only about 40 pages, repeated over and over and over. In several instances, they even used the same EXACT text, they just cut-and-pasted to make the book look bigger. The book contradicts it self so many times I gave up after only 249 of the 788 pages. This book was obviously written by people who know nothing about XML. It reminds me of those papers I wrote in school when you had to stretch a 1/2 page paper into a 5 page essay. To be fair to the authors though I have read reviews on the other XML books in Amazon, and it looks like they are pretty much all below-standard quality. I have no idea who would put a 5 star rating on a book like this.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I agree with the bad reviews - and I'm one of the authors!, March 13, 2002

By 

C. Kirk "Self Publisher" (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Black Book: The Most Comprehensive Resource for XML - The Next Hot Language for the World Wide Web! (Paperback)

This book is out of print, and it should be. It's an awful book, and I should know - I helped write it! If you are looking for a good book on XML, you could either try the second printing of this book, or a ton of others that are out now. I'm writing this review to tell everyone and anyone to save their money. (If you look at the other books I've written, you'll realize I write great books, and this was just a blip in the continum.)

So why was it so bad? Let me tell you the truth, without making excuses.

This book was written a LONG time ago, so it is VERY out of date. And I was a contract author that came in at the last minute, when the book, I presume, was in jeopardy. Another writer had jumped ship, and frankly I think the book had more problems before I even got involved. Why the lead author Natanya Pitts, didn't complete the book, I'll never know. But she didn't and I was hired and told to write more than 400 pages on the technology that had yet to have to be finalized. There were few if any tools for XML, Microsoft had yet to even release their parser, and the original XML spec hadn't even been finalized.

And I kept telling the lead editor at the time, it was just too soon to write a 'Black Book' on a technology that in essence was still being thought up. With the XML spec not even finalized, and other components like XLINK, XPATH, etc. not even part of the equation at the time, there really wasn't much to write about.

Then I tried to contact the lead author, get copies of the chapters she had written, and confer with her about the book, but to no avail. I never heard from her at all. When I did get her chapters thru the editor, it was only after I had turned the chapters I was assigned. That's why the book repeats itself so much, and is so dijointed. I basically had a list of chapters, and that was it. I didn't even get the TOC until much later! Then the editor kept telling me, write more, regardless of whether there was anything to write about. And there wasn't much to write about at the time, so it was a real stretch. In essence I was told write this many pages, regardless, and to do it within less than 2 months.

I learned a great deal about computer book publishing with this project. It wasn't about quality, it was about quantity. It wasn't about the reader, it was about getting a book out so the publisher could take advantage of the tide of interest in XML. From what I understand, however, things have changed at Coriolis and they realize their missteps.

But I still see other publishers, like Wrox, that seem to take that same approach, and I think it really hurts the computer book industry, but more importantly, hurts the reader.

I wouldn't give up on Coriolis (or any other publisher for that matter), since some of the Black Books are actually very good. But I would take the time to really check out a book before buying it, since series books aren't always written or controlled by the same editors or authors and quality can vary greatly. What I would do, however, is return bad books not only to the bookstore, but also the publisher directly. They need to know WHY a book didn't sell and what readers expect. Oftentimes publishers think a book fails because of other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the book.

And until readers STOP buying ...thrown-together books, publishers will never learn! I certainly learned NEVER to work on a failing project like this one. My other books all have 5 star ratings and dealing with irate readers on this book (mainly because the lead author failed to even respond to anyone's email) made me realize how important the reader truly is...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best XML book available today., April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: XML Black Book: The Most Comprehensive Resource for XML - The Next Hot Language for the World Wide Web! (Paperback)

This is an excellent book on XML for the programmer who needs to know how to implement XML and it is also good for the layperson who wants to learn about XML. Perhaps not the best book for beginners, but I think the assumption is that if you know about XML, you are not one.

The book is readable, well designed, and best of all they use my favorite format: They discuss a particular feature until every point is clear, then show an example in the 'Immediate Solutions' section. You can actually learn XML by reading this book and trying the examples. What a concept!

I have read and returned a few XML books by the so-called masters, including the one by Goldfarb, and found them to be poorly written, obscure, or overpriced marketing tools(e.g. the XML Handbook.)

The XML Black Book is the only XML book currently available that won't make you feel like you wasted your money.