worst ever xml book!

I'm only giving this 1 star because Amazon won't let readers give negative stars. The chapter that contains "a quick history of html" is so far off base, I wouldn't read the rest of this crappy book. The 'author' (I use that word very hesitantly) claims that HTML is 'a simplified version of SGML'. There was a bumpersticker in the early 70s that read "Question Authority", and boy! does it apply to this book! The book writer is NO authority on SGML nor on HTML, thus HOW could he be expected to be any kind of authority on XML? HTML is a DTD WITHIN SGML. It was not developed by 'physicists' to create 'web pages' but as part of Timothy Berners-Lee WWW project for collaborative sharing of documents. While it is true that Timothy began working on the pre-cursor to HTML while working as a junior programmer-consultant for CERN (which is a Physics lab) he was NEVER a physicist, but a designer of typographic-programs (at the time). BY THE WAY, XML is a SUBSET of SGML. SGML is NOT an 'overcomplicated' language, unless you happen to be a twit who can't program to begin with. That's like comparing VB to C. VB is for lazy programmers. C is a far more versatile programming language. It is the same with SGML. XML is to SGML like 'reader's digest' book versions are to the real book, or maybe like those synopsis books that kids used to use for book reviews of books they were too undisciplined and unethical to read.

Don't waste your money on this book, and maybe it's time to forget all about Sams ' in 24 hours' books. CR*P.

Other Reviews

• Easy introduction to XML
• Poorly written.
• worst ever xml book!