Just Xml (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

XML promises to structure and deliver data within the next generation of Web browsers. Understanding XML can be difficult, but John Simpson's guide explains it with style, simplicity, and wit, showing what XML is and how it works.

Early on, the author places XML in context of the HTML and SGML Web standards and explains its advantages for sending virtually any type of content over the Internet--regardless of what that data may be. (In XML, designers literally define their own tags and rules for the data.) The author's choice of content is original--his "FlixML" sample XML uses old movies (in particular, classic Hollywood B movies) as its focus. This entertaining approach doesn't skimp on the real details of XML, however, which suggests how flexible XML is. (For the true film buff, Just XML also includes several short reviews of some of the author's favorite B movies.)

On technical matters, Just XML exposes some XML features such as XLink and XPointers, as well as cascading style sheets. The author surveys some of the tools that let you work with XML right now. This guide combines good technical knowledge with a winning approach to an important and powerful Internet standard. --Richard Dragan

From Library Journal

This is such a beginner's book that webmaster Simpson (coauthor of HTML for Fun and Profit) doesn't even expect the reader to understand HTML, although he acknowledges that a familiarity with HTML will obviously help in understanding XML. Simpson uses B movies as his model and slowly develops what he calls FlixML, his mark-up language, to communicate information about B movies. This is an excellent teaching model to use since most of us have seenAand probably lovedAmovies such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Simpson covers the basics, XML tools for hyperlinking, how style sheets work with XML, creating your own XML application, and where XML might be going.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0139434178
• ISBN-13: 978-0139434174
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,479,256 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very clear rundown of XML written in an unconventional way, October 13, 1999

By	Robert Nagle "idiotprogrammer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book in July 1999 after comparing it to many others on the market and reading Amazon comments like this one. This book has many virtues and many shortcomings. John Simpson is an entertaining writer, and one gets the sense he is just as fascinated by the content of his example XML document (B films) as XML programming itself. The book explains things extraordinarily well, although from the first 75 pages one might think that Simpson is perhaps simplifying too much (after all, most of his readers probably have a good foundation already in HTML to pick up this book). The other Amazon comments by professional programmers criticize the book for not being a good reference guide, for not describing enough detail and for getting sidetracked by miscellaneous non-programming related topics. These complaints are valid to an extent, but they miss the point. This is a good book for an introduction to the basic commands and some of the advanced ones. It's to be assumed that after reading this kind of book, the reader could find additional reference material from XML Bible or the W3 website.

I thought the main example used throughout the book really explained the concepts well, and I appreciate how carefully the author tried to discuss topics that might be subject to revision by future W3 recommendations. I also appreciate how the author, anticipating possible exasperation with his film digressions, boxed them in, so they could be easily skipped over in reading (heck, I might even read them later). I have two major complaints. First, it's unfortunate that the book is not connected to a supplemental website with XML updates, corrections, code and tutorials. I am reading, Joe Burns' "JavaScript Goodies,". It contains problems, exercises and answers from the book. Perhaps future editions might be encouraged to emphasized the tutorial aspect more so than the reference guide aspect. Another "complaint" is that the book is shorter than it is. Although 376 pages, the first 40 or 50 pages were overview, every chapter had its own glossary, there were several half-blank pages at ends of chapters and some of the discussions of XML development tools seem to be outdated by now. (These might be better addressed on an accompanying web page). So what you're getting in reality is 225-250 of excellent explanation. Definitely well worth the money.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Improperly named book, March 17, 2004

By A Customer

Writers of Perl and XML books think that they're comedians. Hint: they're not. If I want some laughs I'll watch an old episode of Seinfeld-not buy this XML book.

This book's title and the author's comments suggest that you can learn XML from his book without already knowing HTML. In fact, he tells the reader to "put away the wheelbarrows full of knowledge and predispositions you may have acquired about SGML, HTML ..." (page xi). And on the following page Simpson states that "in order to understand and use XML productively" you don't have to know anything about SGML or HTML. He's correct. But if you want to learn XML from 'this book' you do have to really know them. With everything he discusses, he does so by making reference to HTML. Thus the book is totally resistant to comprehension without this prior knowledge. In fact, a more appropriate title would be "XML for those who thoroughly know HTML"

Under the new premises, this book is still way below average.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much fluff, December 18, 1998

By	Mike Cyze (Marshalltown, Gauteng South Africa) - See all my reviews

I am a software developer and I like books that provide information, definitions and examples QUICKLY, in an easy to absorb format. "Just XML" seems to meander all over the place and is rife with vacuous anecdotes in attempts to illustrate relatively simple concepts. This book might be good for someone who doesn't have any background in programming or html, but for me it was just too darn slow-paced and didn't contain enough examples (in fact, the entire book contains only *one* (completely artificial) example!).

Here's a quote from the preface: "...I'm not an SGML guru. In fact, before beginning this book, I knew virtually nothing at all about it." Ho can this inspire confidence in the author's abilities?

Not a good choice if you are under time-constraints and must learn as much about XML in as short a time as possible.