The new XML features in IE5 are exciting, and we're starting to use XML to publish complicated db data on the web. This book got me up and running, so I've gotten a lot of use out of it. But my feeling is that no one has really figured out how to explain XML very well, and this book, like all of the other XML books I've read, seemed a little muddled and difficult to read. The first four chapters of the book are devoted to XML theory and descriptions of the various technologies MS uses, and I found them a little confusing, despite the fact that I was already running some of the XML-Apache code. For me, though, the bottom line is that the technology is so useful and exciting that it's worth expending a little extra effort to pick it up. If someone knows of a better book, email me and let me know. But for now, as far as I know this is an imperfect book that's the best way to learn an important new technology. For that reason, I recommend it.

This is another example of the quality (most) Wrox publishings have. The book includes some very good and essential reference to the most useful XML technologies including core XML, XSL(XSLT), Schemas&DTD's, the MS-XML Document Object Model (DOM), ActiveX Data Objects and lots of other stuff.

It also includes a collection of very extensive reference appendices to all the techniques described above.

It makes a perfect starting point for XML beginners because:
  1) IE5 and the MS-XML parser are included in most modern PCs and their setup as easy as a few clicks with your mouse (unlike XML-Apache and Enhydra!).
  2) IE5 is a visual environment which easily creates results that can be instantly viewed.

Something I did not personally like much is that it uses JavaScript(JScript) in most of its examples except for a few ones dealing with Active Server Pages.

I 'd also wish it had a few examples on COM scripting with the MS-XML parser (yes, it's a COM server, but the book says nothing about it!). It's so important that if you use Distributed COM (DCOM) with the parser you can create client/server XML 'databases' on virtually every Win32 machine!

I have to say that this book IS complete about the XML for IE5 subject. Of course, this a Programmer's Reference so it's not a book to learn and it's obviously IE5 specific. If you can live with those constraint and you are looking to do get the best out of IE, take this book and you will have all required information.

Bottom line, very practical and compact reference; but it will probably need some adjustments when Microsoft will release future XML capabilities to be conform to the W3C recommendations.

Author Alex Homer (NOT Horner) tackles the difficult task of explaining XML--for which the standards are not yet nailed down, but which Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 browser supports in its own peculiar way. The book is aimed at programmers already doing Web-based programming who want to manipulate XML documents on the Web. There are two key technologies supported in IE5 and described in this book. One is the Data Source Object, which can be used to process XML documents set up like a database. It requires that each XML record have the same kind and number of elements, like records in a database. The other technology is the XML Document Object Model, an Application Program Interface that lets Web programmers manipulate XML documents of different structures (using programming script). One chapter that does not seem to require any script writing is the one covering stylesheets, CSS and XSL, with which you can display XML documents nearly anyway you want in IE5. Finally, there are several chapters of references for XML and IE5 that should be of great help to any Web programmer itching to get into XML. The hands-on examples of code are great, often accompanied by links to the publisher's Web site, where you can download updates and source-code examples.

Problem #1: The publishers say "It gets straight to the point,..." -- I DISAGREE. Typical Wrox problem.

Problem #2: In the first few chapters, sample code is either absent or in fragments that dont run as a whole program. Thus, you go thru' 110 pages and still feel like you are getting nowhere.

Problem #3: Author keeps on jumping ahead of himself in the first 3 chapters. He talks early about advanced topics ("comes to the point" indeed!) giving sketchy, partial details that dont educate an old-hat but confuse the newbie.

Now the good news: If you bear through the first 3 chapters, you will get a lot. Like most books, you will gloss over lots of stuff and learn to learn from learners.

I am a proficient MSXML coder but i can't get what I want (knowledge about .Net XML programming objects) from this book because the author habitually relies on advanced concepts from related technologies to explain things. So unless you are a pretty competent .Net programmer and already proficient in ADO.Net/ADO you will struggle to understand this book and struggle to understand the significance of what you are being told and why. I gave up and resorted to looking for articles on MSDN. Undoubtedly there is good stuff here but Mr Esposito writes as an extremely knowledgeable person for the already extremely knowledgeable person only.

Dino does a great job on this book. It is a great reference on how Microsoft handles and processes XML.

This book only has one drawback that it is outdated as it refers to Visual Studio 2003 and many things in Visual Studio 2005 have been changed or are outdated.

Hope they pubblish soon a book that is more up to date.

Gr8 book if you need assistance with xml programming and also helps in using all methods of reading, writing and using xml. Dino! High five.

Dino Esposito has total, absolute command of the subject matter that he expertly teaches in this book. This is a template for how all technical training books should be written. I wanted in-depth coverage of the XML object library in .NET and that is exactly what this book delivers. This is THE book on XML in .NET. Don't waste your money on anything else.

It is also terrific supplemental material for the Developing XML Web Services and Server Components certification exam. I recommend Mike Gunderloy's book as an all-encompassing source (look up my review for that book); however, I recommend reading the first four chapters of this book before you start Gunderloy's book if you don't have much experience reading and writing XML in .NET. Chapters 12 and 13 on remoting and web services, respectively, are also great sources of exam prep material. In fact, Chapter 12 on .NET Remoting is the best chapter on the subject you will find anywhere.

Terry, MCAD and MCSD for Microsoft .NET

Dino tells all in this superb and in depth look at XML on Microsoft's .NET platform. The book is well organized, starting at the fundamental classes and then branching out to the high abstraction level .NET classes and other Microsoft products such as SQL Server 2000 and Internet Explorer.

As an example of why this book is so wonderful, there have been several situations where I needed to do something in XSLT that just didn't seem practical (maybe not even doable). The section on how to use standard .NET languages such as C# from XSLT is itself worth the price of admission.

Keep in mind that readers are expected to have a good grasp of XML; the book is a .NET book.

Una GRAN pequeña guía de referencia. A lo mejor se echan en falta algunas palabras reservadas pero por lo general es una maravilla poder consultar de forma rápida y ordenada la duda que buscas.

The product got there 2 days earlier than other items I ordered the same day. The condition was good.

After I figured out there structure of displaying information, this tool has become a valuable asset. Definately recommend.

What kind of a reference book doesn't have an index? Sure, the tag reference is in alphabetical order, but that only helps if you remember what the tag is. Also, I had a brain fart this morning and couldn't remember the exact syntax for a comment (I work with way too many languages)- couldn't find it. That's what a pocket reference is supposed to be for, the little things you can't remember!

This is an excellent text and well illustrated. I am sure an updated edition will come out soon.

This is the best book I have found for Freshman/Sophomore-level HTML and JavaScript. I use it with PERL and CGI for the World Wide Web (2nd Edition) by Elizabeth Castro for a complete Sophomore course in designing Commercial-Quality websites with server-side processing. Hint: Be sure to get the Second Printing (First Edition), as there are a lot of typos in the HTML section of the First Printing. The author has an excellent support website at cknuckles.com, which augments some of the problems and provides solutions to some of the exercises.

Can anyone tell me what the website is for this book's lessons. It references it many times but I cant seem to find out where it is actually "Stated" in the book.

Thanks in advance

if u already know something about setting up web pages using html and u wish to add some interactive features to yr web pages,this will be a very good book to start with.This book contains very clear and simple explantions for javascripts.Many concepts are explained using simple yet relevant analogies....if u are hardworking enough u can learn good javascripts in one or two weeks using this book......definitely value for money.

I haven't read the book, but I find it suspious that every review posted so far was outrageously positive, and posted within an 8 day period. In addition, most of them are anonymous. Perhaps the Publisher or Author is trying to boost sales with duplicate reviews. Buyer Beware.

Before reading this book I had no idea how to use the internet, let alone design a web page. However, this book is written on a level that even the most computer illiterate person, such as my self, could follow and understand. Now I can develop interactive web pages that almost look professional. I strongly recomend this book to any one how wants to learn internet programming.

I agree with the other reviewers (especially those from the teaching profession). This book (and the others in the same "Learning by Example" series), are the best thing that hit computer education in a long time. They are wonderful course-ware tools, and for pennies!

This book covers XML tags, CSS1 and 2, the @media directive, XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even includes excercises on ASP, Java and UNIX. It explains XML really well and I was especially impressed by the excellent explanations concering the database nature of XML.

The excercises are well thought out and include reading to and from databases, as well as storing and sorting database-type information in data islands, and presenting it using XSL.

I agree with the other reviewers that this books covers all the relevant material and is an excellent teaching aid. What the other reviewers don't stress is that it is a godsend for teachers. A week or two playing with the material will show that you can compentently deliver a very good course (between 2 day mini-course and a 4 or 6 week 1-credit course). If you are a bit inventive and set the students extra projects, then there is enough here for a 12 week semester.

So all you teachers out there should use this material - it is complete and ready for you to deliver to your students! Why waste time developing your own stuff when this is ready-to-go?

I was disappointed in the size, layout, and content of the book.
Its size was that of a pamphlet (1/2 as tall as a normal book and only 110 pages long).
The layout was by no means impressive. There were no defined "chapters". As you completed each example it simple gave a short synopsis and the next page started a new example.

Early in the book it required the read/user to type lots of JavaScript (which had some typos), later it gave a 1/2 page on installing Java on your machine so you could complete further examples.

Though the book recommended using IE5+ in order to use the examples, some even failed to properly display using IE6. (I found the answers to the bugs by reading another XML book I purchased as a companion.)

Not recommended for newbies to WEB programming and a bit spotty for experienced XHTML/DHTML programmers moving up to XML.

While this book seems to have a lot of great reviews, the other reviews that gave this book 5 stars are very suspicious - BE CAREFUL!

I thought this book had five stars so I was getting excited, but I saw that all the reviews seemed to be made by the same person. Firstly, the reviewers are all unregistered (I am, admittedly, as well) and use same words to praise the book, verbatim.

"I agree with the other reviewers" (used twice).

"XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even touches ASP, Java and UNIX" by 2/6/03 reviewer "Petra B," then another reviewer on 10/28/02 says, almost identically "XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even touches ASP, Java and UNIX"

I consider this "review fraud" - perhaps this person wants to sell this book, but horribly unethical. I know, it seems like I have a lot of time on my hands to go through this, but I am honestly looking for a great book on XML, and reviewers like this who seem to be shamefully promoting their product should be made known.

Please be careful!

Once you get past the muddled first chapter, this book provides a good treatment of XSLT. However, it is in bad need of a technical editor, as there are numerous errors of the kind not caught by a spell or grammar checker.

This book, as the author himself put it, provides "task-oriented explanations of how to get work done with XSLT". I would define the audience that will benefit most as intermediate XSLT developers - you are expected to have some knowledge of XML and XSLT. Part 1 has a brief tutorial, yet too brief for a complete novice. Part 2 is what makes this book worth reading - it delves into typical tasks XSLT developers encounter: adding, changing, deleting elements and attributes, sorting, avoiding duplicates and many other. Perhaps, the book was planned as a "cookbook" to quickly look up "how do I...", but it is more than that: the author describes how things work in detail, shows the best way to perform a task, warns about subtle issues you would spend hours fighting with on your own. I found the explanations very useful: even reading about basic concepts can bring discoveries. There are more advanced topics too, like dealing with namespaces or recursive techniques; read about them, and more challenging tasks will not catch you unprepared.

The book doesn't touch on really advanced concepts like the famous Muenchian grouping, but this is probably outside of XSLT's everyday repertoire and, therefore, outside of this book's mission.

I found myself referring to this book often in JavaRanch's XML forum. Just recently when solving RSS namespace mystery, I posted a part of the stylesheet that prints namespaces (p.99) and here is the response: "That diagnostic transform is worth its weight in gold!"

And I am neither the author nor a member of his family.

This is a great book. It hurts to see some people reveiew it with such real... venomous dislike. I suspect it's a style thing--if you're looking for a dictionary-like exhaustive reference, maybe this book isn't for you. Having said that, I have a low tolerance for lots of verbiage, yet DuCharme's book was totally clear to me. I can poke around in it and find what I want so easily. It is very well organized, and well indexed. It serves as an excellent overview of XSLT, and gets pretty advanced, too. This is a great book.

The books title sums it up. Need to do XSLT now? Go to chapter one, page 8 and you are up and running. This book is for the individual that has to code with a deadline. The pace of the book is perfect. An example is given that is straight forward, clear and explained throughly. Then on to the next example which will introduce another XSLT template with another explaination. Fortunately, the author, Mr. DuCharme, rarely spends time on obsecure points or has long discussions on advanced topics that only guru types care about. If you are just getting started,or you are an intermediate user, this is the one. Get it - Quickly.

I was faced with a very short deadline for transforming an XML document into another XML document with a completely different format. I went through several web tutorials and was also trying to learn from Michael Kay's "XSLT" but I was struggling to get productive. With XSLT Quickly I finally started to understand XSLT and did successfully meet my deadline. I find Bob Ducharme's explanations much clearer and easier to understand than any other book on XSLT. If you need to get productive quickly, buy this book.

Once you feel comfortable with XSLT, use Michael Kay's book for reference and advanced topics.

This book is pretty much "THE" manual for anyone that has anything to do with Web development. I've been a professional developer since '96, and of all the technical manuals I have and regularly refer to, this it the one I use the most. Often, I'll be in the middle of coding and my mind blanks out. I grab the book, look in the index, and go right to the section I need. Usually, I'll find just what I needed and slap my forhead in a 'duh' moment, but Mastering HTML saved the day, and that's ok by me!

I bought this book knowing very little about HTML and this was definitely the book for me. It was easy to follow and enjoyable to read - the examples really work and are useful in the "real world". I admire the quality of this book; I got the feeling that time was spent ensuring the accuracy of every detail printed. After reading this book and doing all the exercises I was able to work with my company's Intranet system and this book has been and still is a useful reference guide.

This book is everything it promises to be and more - I highly recommend it.

If you can't find what you are looking for or learn HTML from this book, then there is no hope. This is the most comprehensive HTML book I have ever seen! Well worth the money and time to read it! Covers everything from basic HTML to the most advanced of HTML. The CD included in a fantastic plus, easy to understand and great clear samples.

This is the most comprehensive HTML code book I've read. It not only does a bang-up job of HTML, but it provides references for CSS, Java, Javascript, and Netscape & Microsoft proprietary code as well!

I highly recommend this book to advanced HTML coders and Web Authors. It addresses many complex topics that will benefit the seasoned coders. I don't recommend it to first time HTML authors or WYSIWYG HTML writers.

I purchased this book knowing very little about HTML. While it is a handy desk reference, I found that the free HTML tutorials available online at WebMonkey and Webdeveloper actually explained how to develop tables and stylesheets much better then Mastering HTML 4.0 did.

As a previous review states, it touches on JavaScript, but The JavaScript Source is a free online resource that contains much more information then this book does.

In my opinion, there is no sense spending money on a book when all of the information is available for free on the Internet...learn from my mistake!

Great book, if you want to learn HTML - it will teach you. Simple to understand, step by step.

I really enjoyed this book, and would definitely recommend it to anyone I know who wants to learn (X)HTML, and basic CSS, I read this in a few weeks, did most of the examples, and found myself feeling sad when the book ended. I wish all technical books were written like this, I would definitely buy other books by Michael Morrison or Dick Oliver again.

I thought it would be so much harder to learn HTML, but with this book, it was relatively painless. This book, and the knowledge it has helped me to attain, has left me interested in learning more about XHTML, CSS, and possibly some programming.
This book is definitely for beginners, I don't know how useful it would be for someone with a knowledge of XHTML, and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be useful to someone who already knows some CSS, since it really just touches on style sheets. But, as I said, it is a perfect book for beginners.

Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours has not only refreshed me on the ins and outs of XHTML but also given me a great introduction to CSS and how it works and is put to good use.

If you are looking to start making web pages with HTML and CSS this is definitly the first place you should look. The book dips first into the basics of XTHML (and HTML -- basically the same thing.)Later, it moves to Cascading Style Sheets and really educates you on how they can be used effectively and efficiently, without overdoing it super quick.

If you are new to web design, this book is for you.

Buy this book!!!!!

As usual, I needed some additional infomation and I turned to Sams Teach Yourself books for the assistance I needed. Thank you for a good intro for HTML and CSS. It was just what I needed at just the right time. Thanks again.

As an IT professional that has built and maintained personal web sites for several years, I decided I needed to better understand what I was doing. I have used Front page for years to build the basic structure of my web pages, then venturing into the HTML to modify and add functionality. I never have taken a class or read any other books on HTML, if I got stuck, I would do a search and find a solution. Before purchasing this book I would not say I was a beginner, but I also knew my skill level was not that of an expert.

Authors of how to books must decided who they are writing for. In this case the authors chose to write to beginners, a category I don't personally fit neatly into. Each chapter is about twenty pages long and includes Q&A, quiz, and exercise sections. Each hour is intended to take an hour to read and complete the quizzes and exercises. However since I am not a beginner I find many sections require much less time. I don't feed the need to practice inserting an image onto a page when I already can accomplish the task.

But if I can already do the task, why read the hour? Well for starters, I'm not skillful enough to assume I know anything beyond the basics. Not only that, this book is teaching XHTML when and where it can. I may know how to insert an image, but making the code XHTML compliant is not something I was previously aware of. Not only can I add an image, but now I can easily explain the whys and hows to others if they should ask.

As I progressed through the hours, the subjects got more complex. Even so the chapters where presented and the subjects explained in an easy to understand manner. Each progressive hour builds on the previous ones, however if I wanted to, I could skip ahead to a different chapter and still be able to understand the lesson.

If you are a total beginner to HTML and CSS, this is the book to get. If you are not quite a beginner like I was, this book will take you to the next level. If you are an expert looking to brush up on your skills, look elsewhere. An expert may learn a thing or two from this book, but it is clearly not written for experts. As for me, I have no doubt this book has helped be become a better web master.

PROS:
Very well written and structured in a way that promotes learning
In-depth discussions of CSS
Thorough list of subject matter
Worth every cent I paid and then some
Improved my skill level

CONS:
I didn't get this book sooner

Trying to create, maintain or understand how a web site works requires having knowledge of many different technologies. This book provides a good overview of the core web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) and a reference of all elements of these languages. For each element, you will find
- a description
- its syntax
- a practical example
- compatibility with different Explorer and Netscape browser

This makes more than 1100 pages that are easy to consult as a single source for web site programming.

I bought the book 3 years ago and it is the most used book in my library. Excellent reference on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript all cross-referenced, defined, and taged for browser compatibility. Anyone who gets into manual coding should find this an invaluable must-have addition to their library. I can't even begin to think of how much on-line search time this book has saved me when trying to track down the syntax for a rarely used item.

Take the book title to heart -- this is really a reference book, not a comprehensive tutorial on web programming.

The book arrived in a short amount of time and packed well and in good shape. I'm sure the contents must be good as our son-in-law seems to really use it.
Barbara

The Web Programmer's Desk Reference is like a dictionary for a web programmer. Whenever I need to know what attributes an HTML tag has and how those attributes can be set I turn to it. Same for setting selectors in style sheets or using Javascript functions.

Good reference with advanced CSS and Javascript coverage. HTML coverage is good as well, but less thorough on cross platform support details. Also the HTML is HTML and not XHTML which you would probably be using with the latest and greatest CSS and Javascript.

There seems to be no maintained errata for the book which has a pretty bad error on page 7. Contextual selectors like:
h1 em ul { color: red; }

apply to an h1 tag that contains an em tag that contains a ul tag.

text

And not what the book states which is that it is equivalent to:

h1 { color: red; }
em { color: red; }
ul { color: red; }

The code equivalent to the three separate rules is not a contextual select, but just three separate rules that can be written as:
h1, em, ul { color: red; }

Despite this error early on in the book, I find it overall a useful reference.

The author's unmaintained website is at:
http://deskref.softsmartinc.com

If you know HTML, you already know everything in this book. If you don't know HTML, you won't learn it from this book. It's much too simplistic. It also encourages copying pictures and code from other websites.
It's really something I'd expect to see posted for free on the internet--that's the level of writing & information. And at least the links would be updated online.
As a beginner's book for a child, it might be okay, but for an adult or anyone with experience, it's not worth reading.

I bought this book for my 12 year old son and he actually enjoyed reading it. He has been creating web pages ever since. He is now the Web Master at his middle school and is responsible for their web page. I hope Dave writes some more computer related books for kids/teenagers to keep their interests up.

I recently came across this book while trying to find information about designing my own website. Most of the books I found were written in a manner that made me want to forget the whole idea of being a webmaster. But that all changed when I came across THIS book. I could not believe how simple reading it was and encourageable! My hope was re-ignited. The best part of the book was being able to actually go online and pull up David's website which the book used as example. The book is full of helpful information and resources that it saves the reader time in the long run once they are ready to publish their own page. It even saves money. I was to the point of going out and buying expensive programs until reading this book. I didn't have to! I even had a few questions regarding my page and emailed David. He personally replied within 24 hours and graciously offered me my answers.

The next amazing thing about this book is the author's age! For a teenager, he is brilliant. He is the next Bill Gates!

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone wanting to tackle the feat of webpage design and have been frightened off by other books. I am in my early 30s and don't mind being taught by a teenager.

This book is a great book for beginners programming their first webpage, or, for that matter, programming a webpage at all. It skips most of the technical mumbo-jumbo that would confuse most people and cuts it down to what it needs to make a great webpage. This is one of the best books out there for beginners and pros alike.

Hi, my name is Arthur Wegelin and I am taking this moment to tell you about what I say is the greatest book that anyone can ever read about web design. Since I go to the same school as Dave I was able to ask him right away if I could have a copy of his book. When I received the book, I started studying it page by page to get all the information for my website. After thoroughly studying the book I was amazed at the possibilities. Dave's book does not only talk about designing the webpage itself but it also tells you where you can get: great software tools, free server space, free web gadgets, free e-mail and lots of other stuff. I'll admit I haven't really taken the time to read any other books about HTML, but if I'm asked by someone which book I would recommend for web design it would be Dave's book and only Dave's book.