XML: A Primer [Paperback]

Simon St. Laurent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 1999 | ISBN-10: 076453310X | ISBN-13: 978-0764533105 | Edition: 2nd

Completely revised and updated to cover the latest in emerging Internet technologies, this practical guide will teach you how to build smarter Web sites using XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Whether you're porting data-driven applications or searching for a better way to manage documents on your site, XML^™: A Primer, Second Edition will get you quickly up to speed on this next-generation authoring tool. With new visual examples, clear explanations, and a splash of humor, author Simon St.Laurent shows you how to harness XML's power and flexibility to create intelligent, efficient, easily managed sites. Simon St.Laurent's lucid primer shows you how to:

• Create custom tags and Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
• Design and manage well-formed documents
• Explore the emerging XLink proposals for linking pages
• Learn about W3C's conversion of HTML into XML modules
• Use XML for literate programming and metadata applications
• Build a customizable online catalog
• Integrate XML with the latest CSS2 specifications and Dynamic HTML

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Simon St. Laurent's foray into XML is best described by an adjective not often used with computer books: charming. From its portable size to its playful code examples, XML: A Primer is an interesting and well-crafted read. Stylistic considerations aside, it is also a useful introduction for anyone who does considerable work in HTML or SGML.

St. Laurent explains the nuanced differences between XML and HTML, stating, "Using XML requires a different focus, demanding that designers examine the way that their documents are built rather than the way they are formatted." He later comments, "XML doesn't go nearly as far as SGML in requiring conformance to standards, but it may still come as a shock to HTML developers. XML standards refer to processors (parsers), not to browsers, because much XML development will be intended for machine-readable data applications rather than graphically exciting web pages."

If you are curious about the hype surrounding XML, ready for an XML book you can read cover to cover, and comfortable with lengthy code examples, XML: A Primer will offer you the knowledge you need to understand this emerging technology. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

XML looks to be a big advancement over HTML. As St. Laurent writes, "Using XML requires a different focus, demanding that designers examine the way that their documents are built rather than the way they are formatted." Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 already offers some support for XML, and Netscape 5.0 will support XML. This book is geared to the HTML developer who wants to move to the next level of web design and not wait for Microsoft or Netscape to develop the tags and style support they need. A primer rather than a complete guide to XML, this is a great starting point.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 429 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2nd edition (October 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076453310X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764533105
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,838,867 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

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book is a perfect primer, April 7, 2000

By 

Michael Witt (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: XML: A Primer (Paperback)

It's not very often that you find a book that lines up with your level of experience and curiousity, but this Primer was a perfect match for me. As a webmaster with 5 years of scripting and markup experience, I appreciated that this book didn't waste any time with HTML. It is an excellent entry point to XML - I couldn't imagine there being a better one out there. It answers "what is XML?" and "how can I use it?" and gets immediately to these points. The author very effectively uses the book itself as an example of what an XML document looks like - i.e. he goes back and scripts an actual chapter in markup. It is very well written (I read 150 pages in one sitting two weeks ago.) Some people might complain that there is too much focus on creating documents and not enough detail about enabling e-commerce, but I think this aproach is necessary. I have since purchased other more detailed books on the particular facets of XML that I'm going to implement for e-commerce, but I wouldn't have gotten here so quickly if it wasn't for this primer. Very highly recommended if you are a webmaster and you don't need the HTTP and HTML background & want to jump directly into XML.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good intro (only if you know absolutely nothing about XML), December 21, 1999

By 

Brian Donnelly (Tigard, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: XML: A Primer (Paperback)

I think my title says it all. This book was very helpful to me and it should be for anyone looking for an introduction and a little history on XML. It starts out very basic though, and moves sloooowly up the knowlege ladder. I was tired of it quickly and found myself skipping chapters to get 'just the facts please'. If you know nothing about XML and need an intro, you may want this book but I would look around for others as well. This lacks hard-core examples.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Best Place to Start, February 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: XML: A Primer (Paperback)

It's February 2001, and this book still does a better job of explaining what XML is all about than ones with a 2001 copyright date. St. Laurent's understanding of a Primer is right on target. Instead of having tons of code for the reader to cluelessly hammer out, he explains how XML works, and so when the reader does code the examples, he understands far better what's going on. The explanation of the Document Object Model is unmatched in any of the other books published on XML. Likewise, the crucial topic of Document Type Definitions (DTD) is handled far better and in intelligent detail than anything published since.

Unfortunately, XML is deceptively complex. While it doesn't take a rocket scientist to crank up an XML file, toss in some CSS and claim XML is yet another programming language one has conquered, understanding how the DTD works requires more than a couple of examples and a reassuring pat on the shoulder that the reader can do it in an afternoon. What St. Laurent does, and does well, is to prepare the serious developer/programmer for understanding XML. To be sure, the book represents a foundation for using XML and is not an entire treatise on all that XML can do. However, unlike some of the books I've seen on XML that contain code that will not validate (including on their CD ROMs), this book gets it right. If you want to get XML right, this book is the place to start.