 Description
Although Learning XML covers XML with a broad brush, it nevertheless presents the key elements of the technology with enough detail to familiarise the reader with the crucial markup language. This guide is brief enough to tackle in a weekend.
Author Erik T Ray begins with an excellent summary of XML's history as an outgrowth of SGML and HTML.
He outlines very clearly the elements of markup, demystifying
concepts such as attributes, entities and namespaces with numerous
clear examples. To illustrate a real-world XML application, he gives
the reader a look at a document written in DocBook--a publicly
available XML document type for publishing technical writings--and
explains the sections of the document step by step. A simplified
version of DocBook is used later in the book to illustrate
transformation--a powerful benefit of XML.
The all-important
Document Type Definition (DTD) is covered in depth, but the
still-unofficial alternative--XML Schema--is only briefly addressed.
The author makes liberal use of graphical illustrations, tables and
code to demonstrate concepts along the way, keeping the reader engaged
and on track. Ray also gets into a deep discussion of programming XML
utilities with Perl.
Learning XML is a highly readable
introduction to XML for readers with existing knowledge of markup and
Web technologies, and it meets its goals very well--to deliver a broad
perspective of XML and its potential. --Stephen W Plain --This text
refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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