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XML Programming (Core Reference) Review by Bryan Geary
OK, but too many problems
XML Programming was nearly the best book on XML programming I have found. Here are the pluses.
1) It does a very good job of taking you through the basics fast and gets into specifics of coding quickly. It walks you through the process of building real applications using XML as their foundation.
2) The book covers more than the Microsoft angle. It does show some Linux and Java examples, although it definitely emphasizes the Microsoft solutions.The reason I didn't rate this book higher was one thing that just kept annoying me throughout the book. It reads like they took an old book and threw in some material on newer XML specifications and Microsoft products, without updating the older material. Some examples of this are
1) They talk about the MSXML parser, but the last version they cover is 3.0 (even though 4 is included on the accompanying CD) and MSXML 4 has been out for quite some time, certainly longer than .NET. Yet there are entire chapters covering .NET and mentions of it throughout the book (mostly regarding Beta 2).
2) They show XML Notepad as an editor. Microsoft has discontinued the XML Notepad and the link in the book goes to a page that no longer exists.
3) Other links in the book do not exist and the tools have been renamed and thereby are harder to find on Microsoft's site.The other primary minus for me was the author's assumption regarding your programming background. The authors use Visual Basic, ASP, Java, SQL and C++ without always explaining the code (Java and C++ are in the minority; VB, ASP and SQL are widespread). Most of the people reading this may not be familiar with all of these languages and thereby get a little lost in some of the examples.
So, if you're already comfortable with Microsoft programming and want to get up to speed quickly on XML, I would say this book is worth your while, but be ready for web links that don't work and check the products they refer to for newer versions.
If you're not comfortable with SQL and VB at a minimum, start there and then come back to this one or a similar title.