The XML Handbook (First Edition) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Paul Prescod (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With its two high-profile authors, this XML guide promises to be the most authoritative on the market. Charles Goldfarb invented SGML, the massive and immensely powerful mark-up language on which both HTML and XML are based. Paul Prescod is a top XML consulting engineer and a member of the World Wide Web Consortium XML team.

Unlike too many high-end authorities, Goldfarb and Prescod communicate with nonexperts in a friendly, engaging style, making their book well suited to mark-up language beginners. They describe what a mark-up language is, what XML is, how it works, and its advantages to users of the World Wide Web.

In the second section, the authors focus on the specific benefits of XML, showing both by discussion and by example how XML can make all types of electronic business easier and more efficient. Part 3 gets more specific still, with case studies of Hitachi, the Washington Post, the city of Providence, and others who are already putting XML to work online. The fourth section discusses some of the major tools you can use to work with XML, while part 5 deals with the nuts and bolts of XML technology.

There's plenty of good sense and humor along the way to make the information-rich pages lively. Included is a CD-ROM with more than 55 pieces of free XML software, as well as other information and software resources. --Elizabeth Lewis

From Library Journal

Goldfarb's book is broken down into five parts: an extensive 60-page introduction to XML, covering what it is and where it is going; examples of what you can do with XML, such as online auction, comparison shopping, and natural-language translation; case studies of commercial development with XML, including projects by Hitachi and the Washington Post; a discussion of specialized tools for working with XML; and, finally, a review of the technology of XMLAsyntax, document type definition, and advanced features. This is the most comprehensive book in the series.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr; Bk&CD Rom edition (June 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130811521
• ISBN-13: 978-0130811523
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,451,961 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Advertising in a tech book?, December 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The XML Handbook (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

One of the strangest books I have seen and a very disturbing trend. The authors sold corporate sponsorship of chapters and let each company write an chapter-length ad. Its bad enough to get ads at movie theaters and on rental videos, but in a technical book? It's one thing to have ads in things where the cost is largely underwritten by the ads (like magazines), but its quite another to find 25% of a full-priced book filled with ads. Buying this book will only help to standardize this practice. Send the publishing industry a message by refusing to buy this book.

As many other readers point out, this book is aimed at managers who could buy the products sold by the companies who bought chapter ads.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 75% of this book is pure trash, February 22, 2000

By	Scott Huddleston (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The XML Handbook (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

The reviewer who states that this book is offensive because it consists of almost 50 chapters of random advertisements, written by different "sponsors".... is absolutely right.

This book is offensive. But if you get past the first 50 chapters, and read the last 15 or so chapters, you might agree with me that they are well written. These chapters teach you the technical specifics of XML, DTD's, XSL, XPath, XPointer, XLink, and Schemas. A pretty fine introduction if you ask me. 5 stars for pages 720 thru 950. 0 stars for the rest of the book, and shame on the authors for subjecting their paying customers to such a glut of material.

I'm tempted to take a set of tree-trimmers and chop off the first 720 pages. It would be easier to carry around with me that way too.... Hmmm.....

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More Marketing Materials, November 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The XML Handbook (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book includes a lot of topics but mainly at the level of marketing documents, it may be good for some high-level managers but not very useful for developers.