XML Elements of Style [Paperback]

Book Description

Series: Elements of Style | Publication Date: December 27, 1999

The way to format corporate data -- Already expected to reshape business-to-business communications, XML -- or Extensible Markup Language -- also holds the potential to become the de facto standard for corporate data integration, an important area where others have failed. Source: CNET
-- Widespread support -- XML is being integrated into software products from nearly every major company, including Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM.
-- Not covered in other books -- Most books fall into two categories -- beginner books, or high-end, repurposed SGML books. This will be the first book to explain how to use XML effectively.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

XML’s best-practices guide for creating expert, reusable, and highly flexible document structures If you have a basic understanding of XML document creation and want to use XML’s powerful technology to create quality structured documents and DTDs, then XML Elements of Style Guide is the right place to learn more. It fills the void between introductory texts and high-level, complex SGML references to give you the tools and techniques you’ll need to intelligently apply XML to a variety of situations. The book is logically organized into five comprehensive sections—all of which focus on specific, related issues. The first section begins with an in-depth examination of the core structures of XML documents and thoroughly describes the techniques for creating rules about those structures. The second section focuses on the tools XML provides for creating documents and DTDs using both highly reusable smaller components and non-XML content. The third section examines the bigger picture of XML structures—from architectural issues to documentation consideration—giving you a clear understanding of the tools needed to create elegant documents with maximum flexibility for interchange and integration. Section four explores the sometimes misused or misunderstood features of XML and the last section concludes with an enlightening discussion of XML’s ability to create documents that can be used in multiple scenarios as well as its ability to connect different systems and processes. Whether you’re an XML or SGML developer, you’ll refer to this first-of-its-kind, authoritative reference for years to come.

About the Author

Simon St. Laurent (Ithaca, NY) is a consultant in the Internet and Web programming market. His previous books include Cookies (0-07-050498-9), a definitive reference on one of the most controversial Web programming tools around, and XML: A Primer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (December 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007212220X
• ISBN-13: 978-0072122206
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,968,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon St. Laurent is an Editor with O'Reilly and Associates. Prior to that, he'd been a web developer, network administrator, computer book author, and XML troublemaker. He lives in Dryden, NY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Second Book on XML, February 21, 2000

By 

Roger T Cutler (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML Elements of Style (Paperback)

This is really a good book but it is not a primary reference for XML, nor would you want to learn from scratch here. For these functions I recommend Professional XML by Anderson et.al. (currently mis-identified by Amazon as by Boumphrey et.al). The strength of this book is that St. Laurent really knows why things are the way they are in XML and how to use it effectively. He writes clearly and gives real good advice and insights. The examples are excellent, but it would have been nice to have more of them. I read this book cover-to-cover and enjoyed it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars XML Elements of Style, April 14, 2000

By 

Robert J. Calhoon (Virginia & Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Elements of Style (Paperback)

We used this book as the basis for a quick class on XML here at work. Of all the XML books we have reviewed for this class this book follow the XML 3W commettes standard 1.0 the closest of any of them.It is clear and consise with good examples given through out. It does a good job pointing up problems with non validating parseing tools too.