No comments about Database and XML Technologies: First International XML Database Symposium, XSYM 2003, Berlin, Germany, September 8, 2003, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

5 comments about Flash XML StudioLab.

1. The book is too wordy, I think the reader donot want to read a story book, also it is better to put notes under screen shots and pictures.

   I hope Friendsofed can notice the readers feedback. More content, few joke.




2. am I supposed to do with a fony Tarot application. I toatlly agree with the previous reviews. TO much hassel. I am getting into some flash application development, for which I got the taste after working my way through Friends of Ed's Dynamic Content Studion, which, by the way, is an EXCELLENT book....

   but this....c'mon




3. last week I bought the book , and till now it looks SO gerat



4. As Flash might finally emerge from experimental eye-catching gimmick to become the next generation front end for high commercial, dynamic web applications, this book really sets the wrong tone (explaining more about Tarot than XML does not match the book's title, right?).

   Although writing the first four chapters must have been fun for the authors - for us, the readers, its just painful. Long and rather vague, XML is described from many angles without getting on a level where you really would know where to start in a practical sense. So when you really have to know about XML, or just need some reference, this book is most probably not for you.

   Chapter 5, trying to compensate for the lengthy introduction, finally presents the XML object in warp speed. (If you are new to the subject, statements like "it would be so much easier if objects could be made directly from objects instead of having to remember its class" are more confusing than helpful, reflect bad style and do not really sell the idea behind object oriented programming).

   Chapters 6 to 10 are not that bad when showing how XML shuffles the tarot cards. Still it might be too cloudy for beginners as the authors just lack focus.

   The Rest of the book (XML Sockets, Perl Scripting, mySQL, PHP) gives you some ideas for the next books to buy, but definitively offer nothing you can start to do real business with.

   In a nutshell: When having read this book you will know what XML is on a high level and how you deal with it once it sits within your flash movie. But this is not what XML was primarily made for.
   When having read this book you still will not have much of a clue from where you will get interesting, business relevant XML data and how to make your flash application talk to the professional world of high end, high paid real world applications. Neither is there much help about dealing with end to end responsibilities. (test, debug, tune end to end transactions from Flash front-end, via web- and application servers down to databases and vice versa).

   For my taste this book still remains with the classic, design oriented flash programmer rather than to finally extend Flash's scope into the realm of serious application development. The book's focus is ways too much on how XML is used internally within flash, rather than to make XML do what it was designed for: standardized communication across new and existing systems and new (web) services. Otherwise you might really ask yourself, what all the fuzz about XML really is.

   As I have already said: do not polish your Porsch in your garage, take it out , learn to drive and experience the real world!




5. This book is a waste of money. I would suggest you check out XML in Flash by Craig Swann and Gregg Caines instead.
   
   The introduction, which admittedly is quite good, lasts over half the book. After the lengthy introduction, the authors spend little or no time explaining the actual meat of dealing with XML in Flash. Most of the latter chapters will state that a certain task can be done with XML in Flash, but provide no insight on how to accomplish this task. Maybe I'm just weird, but I already knew that XML was useful for Flash applications, and the reason I bought the book was to learn how to do it, not to be told that it is possible!
   
   For instance, the "XML Download/Upload" chapter is particularly frustrating. The early pages of the chapter tell the reader that Tomcat can be used to link Flash to a server via XML. However, after this statement, the authors offer absolutely no information as to how one might use Tomcat to serve XML to Flash, what servlets are available to accomplish this task, or how one goes about connecting to a Tomcat servlet from Flash. In my opinion, this is like telling a novice driver that "a car can take you places," and then turning them loose on the highway.
   
   If you want to learn how to use XML applications with Flash, don't waste your money with this book, purchase the book XML In Flash instead -- it's more in-depth, more concise, and best of all, cheaper.

2 comments about XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques (World Wide Web Journal).

1. If you are looking for a book to introduce you to XML, this is not the one. This book is basically a bunch of papers and articles slammed together and sold as a book. It doesn't have any continuity or proper flow. Every paper tries to introduce XML in a different way, which leaves the reader confused and disappointed. I will be looking for another book.



2. This was the first XML text I bought back in 1998 and I found it to be great. It is a shame that it is out of print (like O'Reilly's excellent DCE books).

5 comments about Enterprise XML Clearly Explained.

1. This book is amazing in the amount of no-nonsense, bottom-line information on XML it contains. This is no programmer's reference. But it is good both for those new to XML, or those, like me, who are so mired in the growing "family" of XML standards and products that they can't see the forest for the trees anymore. For example, the coverage of products is very concise, but precise enough that the reader can go to a vendor's web site and start right with the white papers, skipping all the buzzword-laden promotional material. I would recommend this to anyone who needs a solid overview of XML.



2. This book was miserable, and I gave it 2 stars to be polite. The author does not clearly explain XML. I was looking for a book that I could pass off to my staff to help bring them up to speed, and unfortunately this is not it. The author boldly states that the majority of his XML experience is through using Microsoft's XML parser, and the bulk of his examples are Microsoft centric, with a lot of example code in VBScript. His book touches on numerous ways in which other vendors have utilized XML, but does not focus on solid examples of how XML can be used in enterprise applications. The book is extremely short, and is certainly not worth the high price charged.



3. This book is remarkably consistent. It consistently fails to deliver on anything. You could pull together all this information in about 5 minutes from a search for XML from any search engine. I am totally underwhelmed! I hoped to give my boss a book which would explain the power and utility of the XML technolgies available -- fat chance!! If I give him this book we will take a five-year technology step...BACKWARDS! The case study and sample were useless. This is what I did, and this is (kinda) how I did it but...I can't show you because it is proprietary, or copyrighted or...(add your own excuse here!)

   What a waste of money -- don't bother




4. I bought this book based on reading this summary: "Going with XML in an enterprise is an important decision that requires IT professionals to carefully weigh the pros and cons. In "Enterprise XML Clearly Explained," Robert Standefer provides a look at XML, not from within a vacuum, but with consideration to the tools currently available. The book includes a quick primer to XML, as well as coverage of all of the popular parsers, authoring tools, and programming interfaces available. The book also offers several glimpses into how XML can be implemented in the real world and leaves it up to the readers to decipher whether the techniques are appropriate for their needs." I felt it delivered on this promise 100%. I can understand why some others didn't like this book, but I think if you examine what it offers before you buy it you won't be disappointed.



5. This book proved a very interesting read. I bought it despite the negative comments below, and I figured the comments were split 60/40 on the positive side. While the book is somewhat short and to the point, I did like several things about it:

   First, the coverage of XML products. While the products are updated since the book came out, the book did offer a good starting point.

   I also really liked the chapter on different XML-based markup languages.

   The book is slanted toward the Microsoft side of things, and I would have liked to have seen some coverage of SAX. I can't fault the author for not developing in other languages, especially since he offers examples of using XML from other languages (Perl, PHP).

   I recommend this book if you're up for an easy read and would like a snapshot of XML's early days. I would buy a second edition if it came out.

No comments about The XML Files : Using XML and XSL with IBM WebSphere V3.0 (IBM Redbook).

No comments about NEW XML MIDDLEWARE PROVIDES INTERNET DB CONNECTIVITY.(XML Software's InterAccess 1.1)(Product Announcement): An article from: Computer Protocols.

No comments about MERCATOR RELEASES XML SCHEMA IMPORTER VERSION 6.5.(Product Announcement): An article from: Software Industry Report.

5 comments about Xml Specification Guide 3.

1. Any organization that is working towards developing an e-commerce presence must buy this book.



2. I like this book very much. I have gone through this book cover to cover, and have found no technical errors or typos of any kind. The definitions and explanations are very precise. The discussions on Entities, Notations, Processing instructions, and many other complex topics are very precise and clear. The author has done a very careful job at writing this book. Most of the red computer Wiley books are embarrassingly full of technical errors and errata. This book is an exception. Anyone doing serious work with XML needs a clear, precise and accurate book like this. There is no shortcut to learning and clearly understanding the finer points of XML specifications. Actually, reading the first 100 pages of this book (Part I) is the closest shortcut to understand even those subtle details of XML specifications, which are needed to write serious XML applications.



3. This book is not for a novice. You must have experience regarding technical books with lots of jargon. If so, you will like this book immensely.



4. Clear, precise, pure, systematic. Imagine an ice mountain in a cold, blue ocean. That same clarity for XML arises in your mind, when you read this book. (Still, don't forget "The XML Handbook", if you want to know, how to apply XML in business applications :-)



5. This is the only possible reference for XML. You will not find here XSL, XLink, etc., but you will find an help to understand the XML specification itself (with the annotation of one of the authors), and an 'hard' tutorial to go in depth in the bare XMl language. If you had still doubts after reading other XML titles (is it possible to represent this, to represent that, how to model this, can the DTD do that, etc.) you have absolutely no choice. Not for newbies.

5 comments about Developing XML Solutions (DV-MPS General).

1. Hmmm, how can I sum this up? Oh, how about...Crapity, crap, crap, crap.

   What a waste of time. I got the book last year, thumbed through it and thought it was a solid book on the surface. Now that I'm actually using XML on the job, I can see this book is useless. I have the electronic CD version installed yet I have a bunch of MSDN printouts that are my main source of USEFUL information. BizTalk - who cares? SOAP - MSDN again. This book had ONE entry for getElementsByTagName from the MSXML DOM functions. And that one entry was just as part of a long blind list of all the DOM methods. Want a solid generic XML book? - maybe Wrox or Oriley. Want MS specific MSXML real world information? - use MSDN. I agree with another reader - I don't believe this author wrote a single real app before he started to write this book. I think with more practice the author could make a better product, but the whole book team failed on this one. I think the editors came from the BizTalk marketing group.




2. The concepts are presented in a chaotic manner, without small and clear samples. The book could have some value only for html programmers that just want to broaden their knowledge a little bit. ...



3. This book has no direction at all. The author inserts bits and pieces of info that he has collected about varying topics. Buy this book if you want to learn nothing about alot of XML topics from a MS perspective.

   I was wading my way through the book skimming the extremely long and irrelavent examples hoping the Windows DNA chapters at the end would make it all worth the pain. Nope - I don't think this guy has ever written an application that used Windows DNA architecture in his life.

   The best thing about this book is that I didn't have to pay for it. Don't buy it, I am sure Wrox or someone else has a much better XML book.




4. Not only did this book fail to provide me with any succinct information with regard to the problems I'm attempting to solve, it was also a very dry and boring read. The author did not present concepts in the order in which one would regularly learn them. Given this, it is highly unlikely that the author has real world development experience.

   In summary, painful book; purchase at risk to your own mental health. Oh yes, THANKS JAKE STURM.




5. More and more books are written lately by poor visual basic programmers that have nothing to do with computer programming or computer science in general. This is one of them; a real shame for Microsoft Press...

5 comments about XML Applications.

1. A good introduction to the 'current' state of XML as of December 1998. Wrox press are about to publish an updated version of this book as 'Professional XML' in February 2000.

   The book is a bit frustrating at times since has to deal with matters that have not been finalised, and has constant references to sites where updated details can be found. This is probably the biggest stumbling block for XML as a whole, irrespective of which XML book you buy.

   The book is, at times, a bit dry, and could benefit with more code samples.

   Overall a very good introduction to XML - but buy the updated version of the book!




2. This book really made me feel stupid. I only got throught the first three chapters before giving up. The book was at least three times as difficult to read as the material warants.



3. First few chapters are good. Then this book takes a sudden twist; getting harder in the latter chapters...

   Plenty of room for improvement




4. I Read this book and found it frustrating Just to write a simple Hello World program, i had to read almost three chapters, they made XML a VERY hard language to learn,which is not.I took it as a challenge and atlast ran an XML file and had a pitcher of beer to get relieved ...from the stress i had undergone...so dont buy this book



5. Have bouhgt many WROX books and found this to be by far the hardest read, made simple things difficult and ponderous (suffering from verbal diarrhoea), referring too much to later content. Go read something else even from the web it'll save you money and time.