XML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

Simon St. Laurent (Author), Michael James Fitzgerald (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pocket Reference (O'Reilly) | Publication Date: August 15, 2005

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is everywhere: the syntax of choice for newly designed document formats across almost all computer applications. Now used daily by developers, XML is living up to its reputation as one of the most important developments in document interchange in the history of computing.

A perennial bestseller, the handy XML Pocket Reference from O'Reilly has been revised once again to give you quick access to the latest goods. In addition to its comprehensive look at XML, this third edition has been updated with new material on Namespaces and XML Schema--considered among the most important elements in current XML use--along with RELAX NG and Schematron, additional powerful tools for describing XML document structures.

Like other titles in O'Reilly's Pocket Reference series, the XML Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition features a well-organized format that gets right to the point. As a result, it's already won over the allegiance of developers everywhere. If you need XML answers quick and on the fly, this compact book is most definitely the book for you.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon St. Laurent is a web developer, network administrator, computer book author, and XML troublemaker living in Ithaca, NY. His books include Programming Web Services with XML-RPC and Office 2003 XML (O'Reilly), XML: A Primer and Sharing Bandwidth (Hungry Minds), and XML Elements of Style and Building XML Applications (McGraw-Hill). Simon is a contributing editor to XMLhack.com and an occasional contributor to XML.com (O'Reilly Network).

Michael Fitzgerald is a freelance writer and trainer specializing in XML and related technologies. He is the author of Building B2B Applications with XML and XSL Essentials, both published by John Wiley & Sons, and has published several articles for XML.com on the O'Reilly Network.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Third Edition edition (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596100507
• ISBN-13: 978-0596100506
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Computers & Internet > Programming
  • #31 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > XML
  • #39 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Computers & Internet > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another view, February 14, 2006

By 

Michael James Fitzgerald (Mapleton, Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

I am one of the coauthors of this book. I feel compelled to write a review in support of my friend and coauthor, Simon St. Laurent, who wrote the section on XML Schema. Of the 160 pages of text in XML Pocket Reference, Third Edition, 71 pages are dedicated to XML Schema. That's 44 percent of the book. Of the 71 pages, 16 pages cover examples of XML Schema.

DTDs are covered in 15 pages, RELAX NG in 32, and Schematron in 10 (57 pages total). XML Schema receives the most extensive treatment of any of the topics covered, and within the limitations of the size of the book, Simon did an excellent job.

XSLT and XPath were not included in this book because a new, separate volume has been dedicated to those topics-XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference, by Evan Lenz, which also appeared in August 2005.

As for the production rules, they were included for programmers and others who need grammars. The productions, which come from the XML spec, are a means for understanding XML syntax precisely, and it would have been unwise, in my view, to omit them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots about the schema, August 26, 2005

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

The majority of the new material in this book is on different schema specifications. Schema, Relax NG and Schematron are covered. A handy book to have around when you are hacking XML. The online free documentation is not as handy as the content as it's organized in this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides exactly what it promises, October 12, 2006

By 

Joshua Davies (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) (Paperback)

I bought this guide because I needed a quick lookup for XML schema elements (something you'd think would be readily available online, but isn't - at least not in a usable form). The bulk of the book (70 of its 162 pages - about half) is dedicated to XSD, so I was very happy with what I got. The first 30 pages cover XML itself (all the nitpicking details like predefined entities, what characters are allowed in attribute names, etc). The next 17 pages cover DTD (which you may occasionally still need to know, even these days). The next 70 cover XML Schema, and the book finishes up with an additional 43 pages on Relax-NG and Schematron (two competing, and not very common, schema definition formats).

I agree with other reviewers that the book would have been complete without the Relax-NG and Schematron coverage, but it would have just been 43 pages shorter if that was the case - there's really not much else they could have said about XML, DTD and XSD and still have been a concise "pocket reference". This book is actually pretty thick for an O'Reilly pocket reference - I have four other pocket guides on my bookshelf right now, and the other three have 120, 124 and 66 pages each. By that standard, I figure the coverage of Relax-NG and Schematron were just a "buy one get one free" type of add-on, especially since this book costs the same as all the other pocket reference books.

This book is a perfect reference for somebody who needs a quick, handy reference to XML schema and the occasional XML rule.