Inside XML

Years after the virtues of XML were first extolled (and plenty of uses both front-and-center and behind-the-scenes later), XML still isn't the do-all, be-all wonder we were led to believe. Book reviewing genius chromatic here dissects a book that sounds aimed at intermediate or advanced programmers (of other languages) who want extend their grasp with a greater understanding of the flexibility inherent to XML. How well it succeeds? Well, see what he's got to say about that.

Inside XML author Steven Holzner pages 1102 publisher New Riders rating 7 reviewer chromatic ISBN 0-7357-1020-1 summary A detailed but uneven treatment of XML and related topics.

The Scoop People love it, but XML won't save the world. If properly applied, it will improve the transfer of information between different individuals, platforms, and programs. A language that describes languages, XML in the real world has spawned hundreds of applications. In Inside XML, Steven Holzner attempts to make sense of the basic principles and more popular implementations as things stand right now. What's to Like? Holzner's caught platform independence fever, and he imparts a healthy sense of respect for W3C standards to his readers. While the current state of XML handling, especially in web browsers, is mediocre at best, he varies platforms when possible. Though most examples use IE on Windows, the author occasionally examines offerings from Mozilla and IBM.

The book's strength is describing a technology. The first five chapters explore XML's essential concepts, including DTDs and schemas, in as good an explanation as you'll find anywhere. Later chapters cover XSL (used to format and to transform documents), XHTML (the successor to HTML), CSS (governing the presentation of XML and XHTML documents) and RDF and CDF (to describe available resources) in sufficient detail. The explanations here are good, with accurate information and plenty of examples.

Java programmers will appreciate the extended descriptions of the DOM and SAX parsing styles. Though the examples themselves are in Java, most concepts translate fairly well to other languages. JavaScript also gets some attention, mostly in the confines of IE5.

What's to Consider? Though the cover blurb claims otherwise, most programming examples use Java. Perl earns a brief 13-page treatment, while ASP and Java Servlets share just eight pages in the same chapter. Exotic languages like C and C++ are conspicuously absent. A detailed description of the DOM and SAX approaches would benefit everyone, not just Java hackers.

This massive tome could have stood another round of editing. Many examples run up to a page and a half in length when only two to four lines have changed from the previous listing. Other material is arguably filler, such as four and a half pages of JavaScript events supported in IE, or fifteen pages detailing XML DOM objects and associated methods before giving a single example of DOM usage. The publisher could have cut between 100 and 200 pages, instead adding footnotes to authoritative sites.

Worse yet, the book's organization is questionable. After describing the basics of XML, it veers off into a 50-page JavaScript tutorial. Java soon suffers the same fate. These chapters break the flow of subjects, use no XML in their examples, and should be appendices. (They're decent, as far as tutorials go. They just don't belong in the middle of the book.) Readers will have difficulty finding useful reference material mixed in with tutorials.

English majors will also find Holzner's transitions awkward. Logical sections often conclude with a phrase such as "Now I will talk about the topic named in the heading immediately following this sentence." XML is not a serial radio cliffhanger, and most readers can find their way down the page by themselves. It occurs often enough to be distracting.

The Summary Besides the reservations above, most of the information is solid and usable. Inside XML is at its best when describing technologies instead of how to work with them. Uneven presentation hinders (not hobbles) the book, making it a better introduction than a definitive guide. Though falling short of its claims, cautious readers will learn plenty. Table of Contents

1. Essential XML
2. Creating Well-Formed XML Documents
3. Valid XML Documents: Creating Document Type Definitions
4. DTDs: Entities and Attributes
5. Creating XML Schemas
6. Understanding JavaScript
7. Handling XML Documents with JavaScript
8. XML and Data Binding
9. Cascading Style Sheets
10. Understanding Java
11. Java and the XML DOM
12. Java and SAX
13. XSL Transformations
14. XSL Formatting Objects
15. XLinks and XPointers
16. Essential XHTML
17. XHTML at Work
18. Resource Description Framework and Channel Definition Format
19. Vector Markup Language
20. WML, ASP, JSP, Servlets, and Perl

1. The XML 1.0 Specification

You can purchase this book at FatBrain.

Comments

Did Vince McMahon just buy the XML?

[tenzig_112]

It's like the regular HTML, but we now have extra tags like:

• <TAUNT>
• <FLYING BUTTRICE>
• <CHAIRWHIP>

Some say that the XML isn't even a real language, that in spite of its proclaimed extensibility, it is "fixed." But I think they're cultural elitists.

Applications for the XML