XML: A Primer - Softcover

St. Laurent, Simon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764547771 ISBN 13: 9780764547775

Publisher: Wiley, 2001

Synopsis

St.Laurent's popular primer offers Web developers a quick start to understanding and implementing XML. This third edition of XML: A Primer, 3rd Edition, includes new developments in XML technology regarding XLink, XPointer, XPath and XSLT. This guide for Web developers explains the differences and similarities between SGML, HTML, and XML, and provides you with a solid understanding of how to create custom tags and Document Type Definitions (DTDs). You'll also find discussion on the impact of XML Schemas and RELAX.

About this title

Review

Simon St. Laurent's foray into XML is best described by an adjective not often used with computer books: charming. From its portable size to its playful code examples, XML: A Primer is an interesting and well-crafted read. Stylistic considerations aside, it is also a useful introduction for anyone who does considerable work in HTML or SGML.

St. Laurent explains the nuanced differences between XML and HTML, stating, "Using XML requires a different focus, demanding that designers examine the way that their documents are built rather than the way they are formatted." He later comments, "XML doesn't go nearly as far as SGML in requiring conformance to standards, but it may still come as a shock to HTML developers. XML standards refer to processors (parsers), not to browsers, because much XML development will be intended for machine-readable data applications rather than graphically exciting web pages."

If you are curious about the hype surrounding XML, ready for an XML book you can read cover to cover, and comfortable with lengthy code examples, XML: A Primer will offer you the knowledge you need to understand this emerging technology.

From the Author

The third edition of XML: A Primer has been thoroughly revised and reorganized to cover XML's astonishing growth. Though it still focuses on the basics of creating XML documents, the third edition also describes W3C XML Schema and RELAX, as well as providing more discussion of XML processing. Along with the good news about how XML can solve a wide variety of problems, readers will also learn about some areas of XML where the distinctions between features and bugs are hazy. XML has grown so large that it can seem intimidating, but the Primer is designed to show readers what they need to get started quickly.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0764547771
• ISBN 13: 9780764547775
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 560