Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

ISBN: 1-57521-396-6

Authors:

• Simon North is a technical writer for Synopsis, an EDA software company. Simon has been working with SGML and HyTime-based documentation systems for the past nine years. His writing credits include Presenting XML, Dynamic Web Publishing Unleashed, and HTML4 Unleashed, Professional Reference Edition.
• Paul Hermans is the founder and CEO of Pro Text, a leading SGML/XML consultant firm in Belgium. He has been involved with SGML since 1992 and was previously head of the electronic publishing department of CED Sampson, a Wolters Kluwer Group company.

Publisher: SAMS, a Division of Macmillan Computer Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana 46209 USA

Pages: 580

Intended Audience:

This book is designed for the non-technical Internet user. It is designed to transform XML from a programmers' language into an approachable technology. The book tackles not only XML but provides information on related standards such as XSL, XLink, XPointer, and XML Schema. The book is not written for someone who already understands SGML. In fact SGML is rarely mentioned. Having some understanding of HTML, on the other hand, appears to be expected.

Summary:

Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days is organized in daily lessons concluding with a Question and Answer section containing answers to commonly asked questions concerning that day's instructional materials. Each lesson also contains a set of simple exercises for the reader to complete. The authors suggest that the reader will learn far more from each chapter if the exercises are attempted. The answers to the exercises are not directly contained within the lesson, however the lesson will provide a method for the reader to reach the best solutions. So the exercises will provide reinforcement for the concepts presented in each chapter.

This book is divided into three basic units of study, each one week (7 days) long. The reader can select only the weeks, or lessons, that will be of value to the reader. The first week addresses the basics of XML itself. In this week the reader will learn why XML is important, what an XML document looks like, the components of an XML document including elements, attributes, comments, and processing instructions. This week provides the basics required to create well formed XML documents. The basics of data modeling and DTD development are introduced as well.

The second week unit of this book addresses XML authoring. The reader will learn about parsing a document against a DTD. The linking mechanisms that differentiate XML from HTML are also introduced. The reader is encouraged to experiment with displaying XML in both Microsoft's IE5 and Netscape's Open Source testbed, Mozilla.

In week three, the reader will learn how to process XML and HTML. First the differentiation between event-driven processing (SAX) and tree-based processing (DOM) will be discussed and demonstrated. The idea of XML schemas is also introduced as a way to provide further constraints on XML data. Both DSSSL and XSL are introduced. XSL mechanisms for transforming XML into HTML and RTF are provided. This unit also introduces some XML applications including MathML and VML (Vector Markup Language).

In addition to the Q&A sections and exercises for each day, the book provides tips, notes, and cautions for making working with XML easier. The book is filled with code samples (XML, HTML, DSSSL, XSL, and CSS) and frequent screen shots from XML tools so that the reader can easily apply what they have learned.

The reader should always note that the answers to questions posed at the end of each lesson are the opinion of the authors. So answers to questions like "Will XML replace SGML" and "Will XML replace HTML" may, and in fact, are often answered differently by other authors.

I liked this book because it is designed to accommodate many different kinds of learners. It can be used to simply provide a basic overview. Because it is arranged in topics, the book could be used as a reference as well. The reader is instructed to go "chapter by chapter" or to "just choose those lessons that interest you the most." Exercises with an emphasis on using tools to apply the theory in each lesson, can be used to master quite a technical level of understanding as well. Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days will be a good addition to almost any technical library.

I also recommend Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, as a great way to learn more about XML tools and to try them out. Screen shots and code samples help make using the XML tools easy. The Web site for the book www.samspublishing.com includes all the code and working examples.

Dianne Kennedy, Editor XML Files

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