Customer Reviews

XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

You won't easily find a better book on XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0. The reason is very simple: Michael Kay is THE expert on the subject, he has been publishing xslt references for almost a decade now. Currently he is the editor of the XSLT 2.0 specification at W3C. He is also involved the XQuery and the XML Schema Working Groups, also at W3C. He has developed the Saxon XSLT processor. This book (like its predecessors were and its future versions will be) is the definitive reference on XSLT.

The third edition was in two separate books, one on XSLT 2.0 (XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)) and one on XPath 2.0 (XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)). If you are serious about XSLT 2.0, you also need the information on XPath 2.0, as it is a sub language of XSLT 2.0. So you would need both books at hand. The current book contains all of the material available in the two predecessors, and more.

I could have survived on the two books, but tired of taking them from my office to my home and vice versa, I ordered the new edition and I am enjoying it very much. After using the new edition for a week or so I have come upon quite a few improvements, for instance the chapter on regular expressions contains more information and is better structured. Examples have been updated and as have been the appendices covering the processors. There is a new appendix on the Altova processor.

I should also mention the quality of the paper, the binding and the price, they are much better than the two previous books together.

As a reference, the book is complete. It contains a clear description of all the elements of the standards and lots of (tested) examples. There is also much material about the design backgrounds of both standards (and of others like XML Schema and XQuery).

The book is extremely well written and a joy to read.

The book is aimed at developers and should not be used as a first introduction to XML transformation technology (unless you are an experienced programmer). If you need an introduction to XSLT (in its context) check out one of the other Wrox books like Beginning XML, 4th Edition (Programmer to Programmer) or Professional XML (Programmer to Programmer). One could also try Beginning XSLT 2.0: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional), it has good reviews. In any case if you are seriously interested (even as a newbie) don't buy anything from before 2004, it will not include the 2.0 functionalities. If you buy something published after 2004 check that they really updated the book and not only the title.

Recently O'Reilly has issued an update of tidwell's XSLT, 2nd Edition. I could be worthwhile to consider this book also.

Everyone working seriously with XSLT will want this book. The fourth edition is newly updated and improved. Not only has it been corrected to reflect the design of the current XSLT and XPath specifications (which were not final when the 3rd edition went to press), but also it has been redesigned for usability, with much better indexes and navigation apparatus. No more casting about to find things (although you may still not resist a few post-it notes here and there). XSLT and XPath are now in one volume (a big plus); the lighter pages and hard cover make the book serviceable as a reference text in regular use. It sits open and will wear well (provided you use it for its intended purpose and not as a coaster for your drink, which will be tempting since the book will be there open on your desk).

But the book's strengths are unchanged. Complete and comprehensive, coherent, realistic, clear, with worked examples. No one knows this technology better than the author, who has served on the XSL Working Group and edited the XSLT 2.0 Recommendation. Long-time observers will also confirm that he is also one of the best in the business at explaining things.

The only thing less than positive to say about this book is that beginners may find it intimidating. Don't. Just supplement it with a treatment aimed at you such as XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) or anything by Jeni Tennison, and keep the Programmer's Reference ready for the summary comprehensive view, or when you need to go deep.

I have seen many decrepit copies of earlier editions of this book used by industry professionals. This one looks to be good for a long time to come.

It is considerably useful, but please bear in mind that it is organized as a reference book. It doesn't slowly build up your understanding like a textbook approach, but rather lays it on thickly like molasses.

This is a review specifically of the Kindle edition. I have used the print version of this book, and it's a great reference. It's a bulky, heavy book, so I decided to purchase a Kindle copy that would be more portable. Unfortunately, the Kindle version is a disaster, and I recommend it to no one.

After the Table of Contents, the book uses hyperlinks rarely if at all. Cross-references from one section of the book to another are not hyperlinked; they still list the original page number, with no way to jump to the appropriate section. Likewise, the index features no links (and no page numbers) at all. The index to the Kindle edition is basically a list of all the topics covered in the book with no way to access any of those topics.

This makes the book hard to use as a reference. For instance, it's really hard to look up an XPath function. One long chapter contains an entry for each XPath function. The Table of Contents does not list the individual functions. The list that's found at the start of the chapter shows page numbers rather than hyperlinks. The index entry for the function doesn't have a link. That leaves you with two ways to look up the function you want. One is to use the search feature. That's great if the function has an unusual name, but a search for a function name like "document" returns far too many hits to be helpful. Or, you can flip through the pages in the chapter one by one until you find the page you're looking for--which takes longer than just leafing through the print book.

As reviews of the print edition will tell you, this isn't a book you're likely to sit down and read from beginning to end. You'll want to use the book to look up the details on specific functions, elements, or techniques. But because this book hasn't been optimized for the Kindle, it will be almost impossible to find what you want efficiently. Avoid the Kindle edition at all costs; stick to the print version for your XSLT/XPath reference.

I needed a thorough and detailed understanding of XSLT and XPATH after taking over development of a BPEL application. This book is intimidating until you get into it. It is a reference document and covers the subject in detail, but in contrast to many other reference books it is easy to read and understand. There are numerous examples and the author has bent over backwards to make sure he doesn't loose the reader while explaining the topic. Also, it appears to be well organized so I will be able to quickly find a the subject when the need arises.

Why depend on the Internet for help with XSLT when you can have Michael Kay explain every last tiny gory detail? Easy to read and heavily indexed. Sits next to my Bible.

It's tricky to judge the quality of a book in a field with which you're unfamiliar. One technique I've used is using common sense to find various kinds of errors-- and a good sign of this book is that each time I thought I'd caught the author in a mistake, further study always proved me wrong. I eventually ended up reading this book practically cover to cover and soaking up as much as I could.

This book has no fluff or cutesy humor. The writing is precise, to the point, and anticipated my questions. There is some repetition (for example, on the topic of namespaces), making the book in my mind very useful as a reference. The author's obvious familiarity with the standard itself and its various implementations reveals itself in the many clarifying annotations.

Some of the examples are very elaborate and thorough and serve to clarify the complexities of the technology where needed-- for example, regarding the subtleties of the 'for' and 'number' family of instructions.

If there are any deficiencies in the book at all, they are minor. One irritation is the author's prejudice towards Java (granted that XSLT and XPath themselves seem more comfortable in that domain); for example, calling C++ "procedural" or claiming that Java popularized IEEE 754 (neglecting phenomenal implementations such as SANE that predated Java by a decade). This didn't really distract from the value of the book, other than that an entire appendix is devoted to JAXP while there is not a single mention of libxslt2-- making me wonder for a while whether the technologies described in this book were applicable to the problem I was trying to solve (they were).

There are mentions of efficiencies that can be obtained with "a good optimizer," but with only my personal suspicion that only the author's own implementation supports them I'd still have some work to do if I wanted to evaluate the differences between them.

In using the book I did often find myself confused over which parts applied to the 2.0 versions of XSLT/XPath-- and while the book does define that specifically, a clearer typographical separation would have been helpful. This problem obviously will become less relevant as the later versions become more widely supported.

On the topic of the technologies themselves, I've become even more convinced of the absurdity of any kind of executable XML. Also, the melding together of two intentionally separate languages (XSLT vs XPath) with different type systems and other complex relationships appears to have no obvious practical advantage. Finally, if the object of one-based counting was to make the technology more accessible, the actual effect to me was to make it that much less so.

In a nutshell, I have no qualms whatsoever recommending this book to a wide audience. It's extremely thorough, well-written and organized, and authoritative.

Some passages of this book are on the dense side. It certainly isn't written in the chatty style, replete with bad jokes, that I've come to expect from most programming books. But if you can make it to the end of chapter two where the theory becomes useful in an apparent way and the author gets into the nuts and bolts of XSLT, you realize that you have yourself a gem of a book. It's every detail you could want, and a few you don't. It's not dumbed down or condescending or pedagogical. The author assumes you can keep up, and if you're an experienced programmer and have worked with XML before, you should have no trouble. It's a goldmine of information and a thorough reference all in one. I wouldn't call it a "page turner," and you get some sense that the book is partly a marketing tool for the XSLT tool the author sells. That said, it's the only book on XSLT you'll need to buy.

I'm getting further into xslt lately, and I'm due for another sweep through to shore up some shaky understandings.

It may not be a great way to get into xslt/xpath, but once you are on your way this book really does the job. As others say, it doesn't build up slowly, but with this amount of information it really can't.

Want to know exactly what an element/function does? This will tell you. Have you ever read books, even references, and had questions pop into your head, like 'yeah, but what if I pass in null?' or 'what would this be useful for?', 'why did they set it up that way?', etc. Of course you have, we all have. This book, more than any other, actually answers those questions as they are popping into your head.

This is not just a list of function definitions, nor a cut and paste of the standard. It really helps you understand what is going on in all ways.

I have never regretted buying this book, even with Google handy.

Absolutely essential source of information for those who are serious about using XSLT in general and 2.0 in particular.
Viktor Melekhine