The XML Companion (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

by Neil Bradley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Both a great way of learning about XML and related technologies, and an excellent reference book you'll want to keep handy on your shelf." -- Development Exchange --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
XML is one of the most exciting recent developments to hit the World Wide Web, enabling the further expansion of Web technology into new domains of content management, audience targetted presentation and distributed document processing. If you're a current or potential XML user looking for just one reference to get you up to speed on XML with clarity, comprehensive coverage and precision, then this book will be your essential and constant companion.

Building on the success of the first edition of The XMLCompanion, Neil Bradley has updated this accessible, in-depth reference to release 1.0 of the XML standard to incorporate the results of the high degree of activity that has surrounded the standard since its release. This edition now contains the complementary standards that have been released, including detailed coverage of DOM 1.0, SAX 1.0, CSS 2 and NameSpaces 1.0, as well as describing the latest, most stable drafts of XSL & XSLT, Xlink & Xpointer.

The XML Companion: * provides an accessible, comprehensive description of each XML feature * does not assume experience of either HTML or SGML * features a series of 'Road Map' charts that reveal the structure of the XML standard * contains an extensive glossary of XML and related terminology * provides up-to-date coverage of all complementary standards

New to this edition: NEW - Detailed coverage of DOM 1.0, SAX 1.0, CSS 2 and NameSpaces 1.0 NEW - Describes latest drafts of XSL & XSLT, Xlink & XPointer NEW - Covers recently proposed standards - XHTML and XML Catalog

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201674866
• ISBN-13: 978-0201674866
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,769,106 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Handy reference book, March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Xml Companion (Paperback)

All reference books should be this short. The XML Companion is generally clear and concise and does a nice job of relating XML to its cousins SGML and HTML. The examples are easy to follow, although the diagrams are often messy--too many arrows pointing this way and that, obscuring parts of the drawing. The charts, tables, and glossary are extremely handy.

Unfortunately, two chapters (XLL and XSL) are based on specifications that haven't even become official W3C recommendations yet--why waste the paper and ink on something you know will be outdated by the time the book appears in print? Apparently some marketing bozo at Addison-Wesley decided this was the way to go.

Worse, despite its helpful content, every chapter of this book is riddled with typos and other lapses in copyediting and proofreading, which is an embarrassment to the author and a disgrace to the publisher. One expects better of Addison-Wesley--or at least I used to. The proofreader of this book should be whipped, and the project manager should be fired.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful and comprehensive, April 21, 2003

By	David Elder "elddm" (Boston, Ma United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The XML Companion (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

Bradley's book is a pretty complete guide to XML and related technologies. The main chapters are almost tutorial in style, with plenty of code examples to follow. The end of the book contains a small reference section. The topics covered are XML, XSL, XSLT, DOM, SAX, XPath, Schemas, XLink, XHTML, and CSS. Discussions are for the most part clear and accurate. I have two main complaints about Bradley. First, the prose, while accurate, is often overly verbose. It could be written more concisely and compactly. Second, each chapter is broken into sections, but the sections are not numbered, so it is difficult to locate material in the text. The main advantage is the comprehensive general coverage of XML-related technologies. Buying this one book will arm you with the knowledge to develop XML applications and content, and it will save you money. If you have very specific needs, you may need to supplement Bradley with another more focused text that delves deeper into a particular technology. Also, if you want to see longer applications presented as case studies, you might want a different text. I recommend this book for beginning and intermediate XML users who want broad, general coverage in a single book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, clear and to the point for XML professionals, January 16, 2002

By	Isystek, Inc. "reviewer" (MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The XML Companion (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is clearly not for a beginner, nor should it be. Many reviews give it less than five stars due to the fact that it's a bad tutorial. Well it wasn't designed as one, as you should see in the title XML **Companion**. It's designed as a thorough reference of XML and related technologies. Neil is really up to date with his stuff. I couldn't find another book, (and I've skimmed through all of them), that covers everything. Coverage of technical issues like white space normalization, Relax, Trex, Relax NG, etc... It's wondeful.
Please don't buy this book as a tutorial, but rather as a desktop reference. It's a must on all XML programmer's bookshelves.