Customer Reviews

XML: Your Visual Blueprint for Building Expert Web Pages (With CD-ROM)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I finally found a self-taught computer book that doesn't make me question my language comprehension ability. This book cuts to the chase and tells you what you really need to know, instead of long passages of history dating back to the Civil War, as often done by other publishers. Every chapter is done in two pages, and step-by-step screenshots of the programming steps are shown. Programming tips and potential errors are also stated clearly in a single sentence, instead of "nested" (a little programming joke ;-P)in another sentence. This book reads like a reference, yet it is informational enough. But if you expect explanation behind every coding, you'll hate me as your reviewer because this book is not comprehensive enough in that sense.

The CD-Rom includes codes and examples and searchable e-book for your practice sessions. Aside from visual learners, I would definitely recommend this book to practical, on need-to-know basis learners and those who are not blessed with patience as their virtues. With all these new web standards coming up, who's got the time?

I find this book better than the XML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide by Elizabeth Castro. I went to a bookstore and browsed both, read the first 35 pages of each book, and this book by Emily Vander Veer has far more info per page, and so I ended-up buying it on Amazon. It is easier to understand (at least for me) because of the way the book arranges / presents the examples. Your mind doesn't get too overwhelmed/distracted too much by searching for info on a page. Only disadvantage is the smaller font on the examples... It's a great start. As long as you don't ask too many "why" questions, it will tell you "how to". I now know more about XML today than I did last week - and the year before. This book won't teach you everything about XML, you'll need a more advance book afterwards. But hey, I don't know too many "complete, all-in-one" books. A minimum background on HTML would help. If you have done Java/Servlet/HTML/ASP programming, this should be perfect, and with just a bit more imagination you can see the bigger picture. I totally do not agree with the negative feedbacks given about the book.

This book is wonderful, if you don't have a clue about all this new web-technologies popping up every day. I was totally lost buying book after book to learn XML (all with great reviews, very thick and boring). It was almost like learning an extraterrestrial language! This book is perfect to start building up your knowledge so you can understand the most complex books later on.

Too bad I could just find this book going to a bookstore, examining it, since the reviews here were not very good.

I hope that my review can help whoever is a beginner web-developer like me (not necessarily a beginner programmer).

I borrowed this book from my new team lead, since he wants me to do some XML work on his project. I have absolutely zero experience with XML (or HTML), and I saw this book on his shelf so I borrowed it, hoping it would give me a clue as to what I'm supposed to do for the next few weeks. I am shocked at how little I know after completing the first two chapters! Each two pages is a new concept - which I think is a great idea. But, after you follow along with the examples, there is no description/pic of how it should look in your web browser! How do I know if I'm doing it correctly if I don't have anything to verify it with? It's kind of like reading a programming book that never shows you what the execution of the program is supposed to look like - that's ridiculous! Also, the lessons explain the "what" to do, but not the "why," which is really frustrating when you're trying to REALLY learn something - not just fake your way through it. Stay away from this book. I bet there is a free tutorial on the web that is much better.

As with all of the visual blueprint book, this is a good reference for those new to XML. I found it easy to reference with. However if you need more explanation, then pick Microsoft step by step or SAMS 24 hours book.

This is one of the best books on XML. I bought the book 5 months ago with zero knowledge on XML, now, I'm an XML wizzard, got a raise of 7,000 over the last 3 months for my expertise with XML. This is a all-in-one XML book. It tells you step by step about XML, and it's all XML beginners need. A second best book on XML would be XML Bible, which is 1,300 pages. Would recommend reading the visual book first, then proceed to XML Bible to do some fancy stuff.

The moment I read through the book, it started to dawn upon me that this book really is repetitive and a good page waster at that! Each page has 2 screenshots of what is being done, but it somehow doesn't explain very well. Trying to be concise is one thing, but seeing the big picture is something else. And I didn't get the latter part of it.

The book really should explain thoroughlly what is going on. Sure, it has screenshots of the code and some explaination on how, but not the WHY. Besides, its not like each screenshot has plenty to show! For example, each page has 2 screenshots, but at least one showed an empty notepad with an 'Untitled' everytime when there should be a title and a miserable prompt! Why couldn't they just do that once and get on with it rather than repeating it every turn of the page?? This truly sounds like an Idiot/Dummies book isn't it?

The aim of the book was to learn XML by teaching yourself visually. That aim was definitely fulfilled, as it did visually present the examples, and you really have to find out how its all related by yourself!

In conclusion, its not a good book no matter how visual it gets. The primary problem lies in how everything is tied together and that's not explained well. I bet the Visual Quickstart version is way better at doing that than this. However, if you don't think so, then please have a skim thru and see if you can paint yourself the big XML picture.

I'm new to XML. My knowledge is fairly limited. And yet in the first 70 pages, I found at least 7 errors. (And bear in mind, each two pages presents one concept; therefore that averages out to one error per new idea.) Some were "screen typos," as in, the text would say "Type a question mark," but the little line to the screen image points to an asterisk. Other times, though, the information is flat-out wrong.

I'd hate to think what would have happened if I new nothing at all about XML, and just accepted these mistakes as gospel.

Suffice to say, I'm going to try to get my money back for this book.

Gosh, this is a horrible book. I bought this book in the thought that it would give me quick hands-on and kick-off. But I was so disappointed and offended by the book. It doesn't have an indepth explanation of the tags or the syntax, it's like a guessing game, which you cannot afford when you do a real work.

Please stay away from this book. However, if you have absolutely no programming skills, I mean absolutely no skills at all, then this is the book for you, maybe for a day.

Horrible book out there for learning XML. Lack of imagination on the part of the authors leads to same, mind-numbing, utterly useless example being used throughout the book.

Can use the book for a quick glance at the XML syntax though, but don't expect to learn anything from the book.

No wonder the book sells for less than $2, and is worth only that much.