Not a stand-alone book, terrible format for reference

From the book's introduction: "In previous editions, XSLT and XPath were covered in a single volume. This time, they have been divided into two separate books: this one covers XSLT 2.0, while the companion book 'XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference" describes XPath." ... "This book is intended to be used alongside the companion volume ... Since XSLT 2.0 has such a strong dependence on XPath 2.0, you really need both books."

It turns out, most of the questions I needed answered aren't even covered in this book. That was frustrating for me.

I later purchased the companion XPath 2.0 book. In their favor, I will say that I have never had a question about XSLT or XPath that wasn't answered by these books.

However, both books are perhaps the worst-formatted reference books I have ever seen. Much of the book consists of an alphabetical reference of XML elements or XPath functions. Unfortunately, the page headers and footers only contain page numbers and chapter titles. They do not contain the name of the element or function that is described on that page. So you can't just riff through the pages watching for your function to appear in the footer.

There is a heading for each element or function name, but the font used for the sub-headings are as large as (if not larger than) the major headings. There are no page breaks between functions or elements. So you can't even visually scan the pages looking for your functions.

Finally, the table of contents consists largely of function or element names on the left, with page numbers on the right, separated by about five inches. But there are no dot leaders between them. So, even when you resort to using the table of contents to find the section you need, you have to use a ruler to find the page number.

Other Reviews

• Lousy design/layout impairs usability
• For serious developers only -- but perfect for the right audience
• Not a stand-alone book, terrible format for reference