VRML Books

This book. Is what it is. The ideas presented are not new.
It's full of code which should have been left out of the book.
His writing style is hard to read. He goes off on tangents that make no sense.
A very bad book.

The book is kind of blur and not much indication on how to do it. It is not worth to get one actually.

XML is a critical emerging technology which has the potential to revolutionize database connectivity in enterprise software development. While the author provides knowledge about XML document design and delivery, the book falls short of providing meaningful insights to those who wish to construct integrated commercial XML/Database systems.

The writer doesn't seem to have a good idea of the history and development of these database concepts for commercial use. For example, he doesn't seem to know that Object databases have had repeated failures in terms of performance, maintainability and a host of other factors in mission critical applications.

He would have gained by referencing "Foundation for Future Database Systems: The Third Manifesto," by C.J. Date and High Darwin, and by familiarzing himself with "The Great Debate," where E.F. Cobb demonstrated how non-relational models are orders of magnitude more complex than relational models for the same problem.

As someone who has architected and developed large scale XML-based database applications, I sense that the author has come from a perspective of writing specialty XML document delivery databases for non-commercial purposes in the biotechnology industry, and provides minimal material which would be useful to anyone seeking to implement industrial strength XML databases (in an application server, for example) or to use XML messaging with relational databases (e..g., with webMethods and Rendezvous' Tibco.)

The author has a writing style which is quite chatty and unprofessional, which continually distracts from its purpose, which is to compare XML, Relational and Object database design issues. Buy this book to skim through it as a reference, but do not expect it to be of great value to many of the issues that are likely to be faced in building enterprise class databases. You can find better information of a higher quality on this subject for free by visiting [certain websites] and reading many of their XML-related articles. It may be of more value if you only wish to create XML document servers.

The author discusses some interesting topics, but I found the book far too full of vague statements about the usefulness of various ways of encoding XML and of database architecture. Similarly, the chapter on querying XML databases was enough to whet my appetite, but it was mostly on the representation of queries (useful, to be sure, but confusingly presented), had little about efficiency considerations (surely of paramount importance when discussing queries), and presented as "algorithms" methods that are so unrefined and simplistic that they're better labeled "query methodologies."

To be fair, I haven't been all that impressed with the other XML books I've been skimming...

This is a great book, very useful for programmers, database developers, students, system architects, and anyone else who wishes to effectively use, design, or build XML databases. A basic knowledge of XML and databases is assumed, and the focus of this book is on pulling them together. Some advanced techniques are described in this book and the presentation is fairly dense in those areas.

The book covers variety of topics like:
How to design a schema for an existing XML DBMS beginning with the concepts of the field being modeled and resulting in compatible schemas for XML documents, relational databases, and object-oriented applications.
How to store XML data in a relational DBMS, object-oriented DBMS, or flat files, and how to make decisions on which approach to choose.
How to design a system architecture that contains an XML database, Web server, and user applications.
How to develop a user interface for XML data accessed via a Web browser or Java application.
How to query an XML database and what algorithms support XML database querying.
How to create a native store for an XML DBMS.

While I appreciate the AIR v1.0 has only just been released, this book was far too light on - I didn't really gain anything that I had already learnt from Adobe's quickstart and sample apps. It's a pity because there is a heap more stuff in AIR that just a little extra insight could have really added a lot of value to this book.

I've never been too fond of the Wrox books but am happy to note that this was an excellent starter book for AIR. I decided to roll the dice on it (based on poor experiences with other Wrox titles) because of the author (a noted Flex/AIR guru), whose blog I've read. Well, Rich Tretola (the author, that is!) did not disappoint. The book is concise and packed with good informaiton on AIR and the new APIs you'll want to use/learn. Speaking of the APIs, all code/examples in the book are useful and focused.

If you are looking to get started with AIR, this is an excellent book for you.

If you're looking for a big 'Hello World' book using Flex then this is the book for you. The publisher has done a great job in mentioning all of the relevant technologies without saying the book is targetted towards Flex developers.

It's solid. It has a "cookbook" feel to it, which I like. What I mean by that is that the book dishes out info in a succinct way and covers pretty much what you'd like to know when building an app. Things like, prepping the xml description file, accessing the local file system, connecting to remote data, interacting with the OS. Good stuff.

I don't like how short it is, about 300 pages. The text is big, has lots of pictures (this is good but it inflates the page count), and a few tables that I thought were unnecessary.

If you are competent in Actionscript, but don't know much about AIR, this is great. I'm an advanced ActionScripter, so this book really just fills in a few holes I had about AIR, and will serve as a good reference when I need to be reminded how to say, move a directory on the users computer or how to set the window chrome of an application.

This is probably one of the worst teaching CD's I have ever seen. Indeed, the author, who is also the instructor for the college course, clearly has no concept of what good programming skills or good presentation styles are . The entire course was basically copy & paste exercises with no real instruction whatsoever. There was no challenge. I could have learned just as much on my own. To add insult to injury: he gets the money for the poorly written (and required) CD. I would give it 0 stars if I could.

Do not buy this "book" (it is actually a "Web-site" on CD) unless you are forced to buy it as required material for a class... and in that case - borrow it from some other poor soul who has already purchased it - since they certainly will be happy to get rid of it.

It is hard to imagine anyone finding this a helpful item. The author apparently has no idea how to present information in a cohesive and usable manner, and seems to have only a beginner or hobbyist level grasp of the principles he is attempting to teach.

He seems to be preaching about "Intelligent Tutoring Systems" and how to make a great web site using Javascript, but the overall navigation, presentation, and content of the "site" is so amateurish that it is embarrassing. Most of his code examples are of poor quality and show a misunderstanding of programming principles, or are at least so poorly thought through that it is a disservice to the student or Javascript beginner to offer this material as being instructional. In my opinion, the student will come away from this material with a misunderstanding of web site development, Javascript programming, and professional practices - if she/he is able to actually follow the materials and can get past all the broken links and dead-end pages that is.

One example of the poor quality of the material is that when you select the button to view the "correct" answers for two of the three Javascript tutorial quizzes - you are shown the answers to the first quiz. Not very helpful! And this is typical of much of the material.

If the author had followed his own advice in the following quote from the "book" then perhaps at least the material would be readable and navigable, if still virtually useless:

"Creating an effective and attractive Web site involves much more than throwing images and text onto a background graphic. Flashy images and super-cool technology won't keep viewers on your site. It's necessary to learn how to construct a creatively-designed, carefully developed, consistently maintained Web site."

Don't bother buying this product - you are guaranteed to be disappointed.

This CD-ROM book took me step-by step through all the intricate moves necessary for programming and installing a well-designed web site. The clear instructions are beautifully organized and illustrated throughout. I highly recommend it to anyone who has basic computer skills. The designers of some of the sites I've visited could improve their skills if they took lessons from this first-class instruction manual.

Contrary to one of the other reviews on this site I found this to be an excellent structured approach to learning XSL. The book however is not a reference guide as much as a step by step tutorial. Read cover to cover the reader should gain a good indepth knowledge on the subject. The content is light enough to keep you interested but not so light that you're left guessing and the later chapters (while not necessary to gaining good XSL knowledge) cover a lot of advanced topics such as XSL-FO.

PS. No where on the back cover or in the contents are topics such as JAVA or CGI mentioned. The reviewer who expressed dismay at lack of coverage in these areas should have bought a different book if that's what they wanted to start off with.

After a comprehensive search through the jungle of available literature on the much talked topic 'XSL', I - a total beginner to XSL, X-PATH, X-POINTER, X-LINK - decided to purchase the book 'Just XSL'.

My objective is:
- to be able to develop professionally written XSL
with all the necessary surrounding languages where necessary
(such as X-PATH, X-POINTERS, etc.)
- to know 'XSL surrounding languages' where necessary or to be
able to evaluate what is why, where necessary under which
circumstances

My goals are:
- to learn the principle structure of XSL
- to learn the correlating languages going along with XSL
- to systematically understand all necessary syntax, tree
structure and whatever should be involved
- to practically apply studies to 'real-world' examples
under different degrees (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
(eg including CD, etc.) for XSL and necessary surrounding
languages
- to know how to incorporate XSL into or with web based
languages (eg Java, CGI) and database development
- to be provided with suggestions on available tools on different
platforms (for Mac, Unix, Linux, Windows, etc.)

My learning targets have unfortunately not been met by this book, unfortunately. Although the books talks a lot, it lacks of a structural approach and has thus not met my learning goals. All in all, I am obliged to get another book on the topic so I am left with the starting situation again: which one? I hope it will not be another waste again ..... Students always have a limited budget.

I bought this book based on a long, positive history with WROX products. I've got a whole shelf full of these volumes on various topics and they've historically been the best in the business.

Not so with this volume. These guys are obviously uberdorks who got an A in Computer Science and a C- in Language Arts. The writing is scattered, clunky, and generally subpar, making it very difficult to decipher portions of the book - let alone learn any programming disciplines from it. (In that regard, the editor(s) and proofreader of the volume also deserved to be flogged with a wet noodle.)

I expect a far more professional approach and delivery than this book provides. I'll struggle through it and learn the material, but it shouldn't be this difficult... The time of technical training manuals being written by eggheads with no affinity for interpersonal communication passed twenty years ago. Shame on WROX for releasing this volume in such disarray.

Not recommended for MCSD or MCAD 70-310 exam preparation!

Conceptually, the book covers all of the bases that an aspiring XML developer would require, including somewhat thorough concept, explanation, example, and summary investigations.

Where the book greatly lacks is the code samples; many will not run, and multiple programming languages are introduced.

Don't buy this book for study.

The author of this book appears to have stopped short of actually completing it. The content is based on a Draft specification of VRML 2.0, and the examples will not work in final draft browsers. The publisher should have paid attention to the quality of the contents on this book. I hate to say this, but don't waste your money!

I have no idea where this author got their information, but it's presented with an air of authority (which should _not_ be present) and -ZERO- of the examples using sensors of any sort funtion in production release VRML2.0 browsers. Additionally, the description of Nodes, Fields, and the related ilk are merely warmed over without passing any substantial understanding or attempt to pass these concepts. Please, for the love of God, save your money and spend it on The VRML 2.0 Handbook or other resource.

When I ordered this it was described as a paperback. It is nothing but a flyer. It ended up costing with shipping almost nine dollars and if I return it I have to pay another four dollars. It isn't worth my time but this was very misleading and I just threw it out. It is sad as this was for a boy who is trying to change his life. He is trying to find direction but thank you for not meeting my needs.

READ MORE - LEARN LESS
To me this book was a complete waste of money . It is like a children book. And the writing for the HTML code was very small in size. Also this book is filled with drawings that has no objective. Please save your money and time and look for another book.

This book is completely inadequate. It just barely skirts the shores of the fundamentals of VRML and then abandons you. Other books by such acknowledged gurus as Marc Pesce go far deeper into the Zen of VRML and Tao of programming for VRML with Java and other technologies. Compared to most competitive volumes, Jamsa's tome is decidedly light on useful content.