Markup Languages Books

An excellent resource for anyone who knows HTML and wants to learn XHTML; a critical component for future Business to Consumer commerce systems.

This book had many positive qualities and a few negative ones. It was a well-written book, with comprehensive coverage of the topic. However, it was longer than necessary and contained to much filler.

The concept behind the xhtml 1.0 spec is relatively simple. You must perform the following: close all your tags, include the xhtml dtd, use all lower case letters, use CSS instead of the deprecated formatting tags, and put script in cdata sections. The book required 304 pages to make these points, as it showed how each would impact 12 different browsers. On the positive side, this book was very concise and well written. At one sitting, I completed over 200 pages. It was truly enjoyable to read and the topics retained my interest.

Overall, I give this book four-stars. The only negative being the large quantity of filler content. The book was perfect otherwise.

this book is full of good information, particularly if you don't know much about xml but know a lot about html. the first 10 chapters are great, particularly the sections on the document type definition (dtd) -- you can see where the W3C defines html and how much of that definition is missing or added to by the different browsers. unfortunately, the book is not laid out very well. there are a lot of references to later chapters that leave you wondering what they are talking about until you get there. this book is written by two different people, and it seems obvious who wrote what chapters. i give 4 stars, not 3, because there is enough useful information in this book to make it worth reading and having for the html expert looking to make the move towards xml.

In my efforts to learn and understand XML the past year and a half I have come upon a decided lack of interest for the subject among my technical writing colleagues. Single-sourcing with XML has simply been too difficult to set up. You need a DTD or schema (or EDD in FrameMaker) before your can start writing, and style sheets to present it. It seems that XML has mostly been used in web services like on-line shopping.

If tech writers are using XML, it is probably because they were already using FrameMaker with SGML earlier and have just converted their documents to the XML version. Furthermore, if you are not using FrameMaker 7.0 as an authoring tool, you had to find some other new tool, like XMLSpy, Authentic or Veredus, which have many capabilities, but seem "geeky" to a tech writer.

INTRODUCING XML IN OFFICE 2003
You can't imagine how delighted I was to see this book recommended in a newsletter, because that was the first I'd heard about the XML facilities in Office 2003. When my husband updated to Office 2003, I bought the book to see how it works. To my dismay, I discovered that the XML facilities are only in the Professional edition, so I ordered a 30-day trial version of Office 2003 from Microsoft and started reading.

One of the authors, Charles Goldfarb, has been in on XML since its conception (and birth, way back in 1998!) so he is one of the big XML gurus. Now gurus are not necessarily, by definition, good writers of introductory books. However, Goldfarb has his own series of excellent books, motivating and educating developers and users in the wonders of XML.

This introduction is well structured and well thought out. All the steps are well described and easy to follow. There are even separate XML tutorials to bring beginners up to speed without boring more advanced users. The only difficulty I found is that the book is so richly illustrated that some steps refer to a screen capture on a following page.

USING THE BOOK
Part 1, Introducing Desktop XML, aims to motivate you with "The reason why" it's worth your while to get the 30-day trial version and keep on reading.

Part 2, Working with XML in Office, has you creating XML documents in Word, using external XML data in spreadsheets, exporting and importing XML in Access and creating XML websites in FrontPage. You will also discover how easy it is to import XML data, like zip codes and stock market data, from the Internet. You can download all the code for the examples from www.XMLinOffice.com.

INFOPATH
An exciting new feature is a new Microsoft product, InfoPath, which you can use to create "smart" forms. The book includes a CD with a free 60-day trial version. InfoPath can become your front end to XML-enabled databases, or any other data-based XML application. (Note: you have to open the sample InfoPath documents in Design mode, and then publish them to your own computer to be able to see them in action.)

XML TUTORIALS
If you have never seen XML before, there is no need to shy away. Goldfarb provides you with all you need to know in Part 3, XML Tutorials, in the back of the book. Each chapter in Part 2 lists the skills you need to understand and perform its activities, with a reference to which tutorial to read prior to the chapter. So, while more experienced readers can start right off, beginners do a tutorial or two in the back of the book before starting each new chapter.

USING XML IN OFFICE 2003
I found working with XML in Office 2003 easy and intuitive. All the information you need is in the Task Pane on the right side of the screen. Just drag tags from the pane to your document. If you want to produce XML quickly, you can even use the built-in Word Markup Language (which catches every bit of Word's complicated style markup). Nevertheless, it is much better to learn what little you need to know to author pure XML in Word, which it does beautifully. XML is an open format that you can import into any other XML document in, say, FrameMaker, InDesign or Quark, so it is worth keeping it pure.

BEYOND THE TUTORIALS
Of course the hard part is making the first decision to actually create a working document in XML. Other than in tutorials and class exercises, I have not gotten there yet. I figure it won't be long before I update my 30-day trial to the real version of Office 2003. It really isn't difficult to get started, because Office 2003 provides you with a number of templates with all the necessary schemas and style sheets, which you can modify for your own use. Now you have to figure out how to convince your employer that this is exactly what you need to make your documentation work more efficient and user friendly.

Mr. Goldfarb is on a tear with yet another book about XML and XML technologies. In this case it's about the integration of XML into Microsoft's Office Suite for 2003. This is an impressive peice of work and it shows through in the book, which is far superior to his XML handbook, though it does suffer from similar problems. Once again the book has aggressively short chapters and has an uneven level of detail. In addition some of the chapters feel like a lift from the handbook, which is not necessarily a bad thing give that they are from the same author. And the book also has a strange organization, for instance leaving the explanation of XML standards and syntax to the last few chapters of the book.

That being said the book is still far better than the XML Handbook. And I think in large part that has to do with the fascinating topic which is Microsoft's excellent work in integrating XML into their products. This is a worthy read, especially if you are a developer looking to leverage the XML capabilities of the Office suite.

With the XML advantages in the Office 2003 suite of applications not being glaringly obvious (at least not to me), I gave this book a whirl. I'm glad I did.

It's consistent in its organization - presenting the capabilities of Word, Excel, Access, FrontPage, and Office forms to use, manage and manipulate XML-based data - first from within the applications themselves, and then from more robust subsystems using Office's embedded Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). It shows how easy it is to manage data by building great apps with simple scripts. (Notably missing was a discussion on the applications of XML within PowerPoint, although I'm admittedly unsure if that's even an issue.)

The book's voice is very friendly and non-intimidating, using chapter around 15-30 pages at most, making for a pleasant, quick reading experience. On this note, I found the Excel chapters and those on WordML especially valuable. As far as the examples themselves, all were practical and easy to replicate locally, whether by menu or through code. There's a healthy lean towards the use of SOAP by making Web services calls for importation of data that's a great addition.

The book also has something I found that many modern programming texts don't - an easy-to-understand explanation of schemas and how to construct them. All books discussing XML obviously make mention of the use of schema, but the vast majority don't explain it well. The authors do a great job of not only explaining schema's role in an app, but also how to build it, which is something newbies will appreciate.

Still, in this day of modern distributed applications and datashaping, I also would have liked to see the VBA-based examples complemented/contrasted with .NET programming concepts and code, working against the APIs for each Office app. Also, one thing I found somewhat annoying was that the code, while complete and hearty, always referenced "in Line 25...and then in Line 30", without marking the lines of code, forcing the reader to manually count-and-mark the lines. This was a minor nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless.

But the good in this book far outweighs the bad, and the content and examples can be picked up by any level of staffer in the workplace who's familiar with Office apps. It's a great read.

The above book is full of information with regards to XML Security and it's implementations. However, I found it to be VERY application oriented towards RSA's own Bsafe product Cert-J.

If you are interested in utilizing a C or C++ parser you should look for a different book. But, if you will be developing and/or utilizing XML via a Java-based program; this is definitly the book for you.

Given the fact that XML is a key component of web services, and extensively used in e-commerce and enterprise applications integration, this book addresses a genuinely important topic. For one reason, XML is text-based and can expose proprietary information, which is a vulnerability for competitive intelligence specialists and corporate spying.

Before going into what the book contains it's important to know that much of the material is based on RSA's view of the security. This isn't a criticism, but an up-front statement of fact because if you're looking for a book that is 100% vendor neutral you are going to have to wait until one is written - this is the only book I know of that is solely about XML security.

The book starts with primers on security and XML to set the context. It then covers, in succession, digital signatures (chapters 4, 5 and 6), and XML encryption. These chapters are consistent with work and specifications produced by XML Signature WG (joint the Working Group IETF and W3C for digital signatures) and the W3C working group for XML Encryption.

Chapter 8 is specific to RSA products. It shows how to implement XML encryption using RSA BSAFE© Cert-J, which can be downloaded in a trial version from RSA's website. Chapter 9 covers XML key management specification, which are consistent with the W3C working group's specifications, and how XML security relates to web services.

Despite the slight bias towards RSA this book is an invaluable reference. It provides an in-depth discussion of major security issues, as well as how they are being addressed by the W3C. It goes without saying that anyone who is responsible for system architecture, design and/or security should carefully read this book.

When you read the XML specification, you will notice that it contains no notion of security. Critical security functionalities such as encryption, digital signatures, and authentication are simply not part of the XML standard. XML is similar to many other protocols, languages, and operating systems in that it was originally developed without any thought to security and privacy. It is only after serious security vulnerabilities are discovered and publicized that they are patched. But this find, patch, fix mentality of information security is dangerous in that security problems can exist for months or years before they are found.

Similarly within XML, much of the security functionality has been added post- facto, namely in Canonical XML, XML Signature, and XML Encryption Syntax and Processing. By adding security to the core feature set of XML, the W3C has ensured that,
to a degree, the find, patch, fix method won't be the manner in which XML security is developed. A good reference book can help you navigate this XML security landscape.

XML Security is a reader friendly title and focuses more on the implementation of XML. For readers looking for ways to use XML and less coding examples, XML Security is more useful book. The author, Blake Dournaee, is an employee of RSA Security, and the book is an RSA Press imprint. Furthermore, Chapter 8, the book's longest chapter, is about XML Signatures implementing the RSA BSAFE(c) Cert-J toolkit. Even with the RSA vendor bias, XML Security provides a good reference to the XML security functionality.

This book spends more time introducing the reader to security concepts, and Chapters 2 and 3 (Security Primer and XML Primer) provide the reader with a good overview about all of the significant concepts involved. Chapter 6 provides a plethora of XML signature examples. As XML signatures are rich in their features and syntax, combined with the vast number of elements and permutations of those elements, it can be quite difficult for someone to understand how to properly use XML signatures. Chapter 6 provides 14 different scenarios and their proposed solutions. These scenarios range from adding a single signature to a basic XML document, to adding multiple types of signatures to various documents. For readers who need good hands-on examples, Chapter 6 is worth the price of the book alone.

I have just started working with XSLT and XSL-FO. This is an excellent book that explains all of this stuff in a language that you can understand. I would definitely recommend this book if you are new at this stuff.

It also has an excellent appendixes with the listing of all of the objects and properties.

Before I jump into an overview of the book, I wanted to make a quick observation first. I personally can't understand why XSL-FO hasn't caught on as fast as XSLT, XML and its ultra popular variant HTML. XSL-FO is the third spec of the original big three specs provided by the W3C and it was supposed to provide a markup language suited specifically to printing documents. XSL-FO is to the printed page what HTML is to the browser.

This is one of three books currently available on the XSL-FO topic, and I am shocked at the lack of availability of good books on the topic. This is the first book I read on XSL-FO and I have to say it does a good job of introducing the language and it's concepts. It is a semi good reference book. However, the code samples I think are just horrible. There is not a single examples where you have simple straight XSL-FO. All code examples are FO interlined with XSLT, making the syntax confusing and almost unreadable. You have to sift through 2 pages of XSLT before you get to one XSL-FO element. I think part of the slow acceptance of the language has to do with the fact that all books on the topic present code that mixes FO and XSLT. You can write straight workable XSL-FO that is much easier to debug and understand, than the code presented in this book.

Also the renderer software that was recommended in the book are the oldest guys on the market, but definitely not the best. Antenna House is the big dog and they have an excellent renderer (they are very expensive though). Some of the other renderers mentioned in the book are just terrible. If you want a list of good renderes search online. On the Windows platform, in my opinion, the best two renders for high volume operations on the market are Antenna House and the Ibex PDF Creator (from xmlpdf.com)

A good book that gives XSL-FO only code samples is the Ken Holman "Definitive XSL-FO" book. That book is a more advanced book however, and is only good if you already understand the language. It is also a semi-good reference book. To a novice, that book will be a bit over the top and probably very confusing. The other good book on the market is the O'Reilly book. Of the three, it is the best reference book by far.

So to recap, if you are venturing into XSL-FO, buy Doug Lovell's book in the beginning. Then buy the Dave Pawson book for reference. And finally when you get some mileage under your belt, get the Ken Holman book for the more advanced concepts and topics.

I rated the book 4 stars because it provides solid examples in many areas of XSL FO that actually work. Even though the W3C recommendation has been out since October, 2001, we have just started to see accessible books on XSL FO, and this is the best. The author provides a hands-on view and gives you examples that work and get you up and going quickly. Not a lot of wading through esoterica wondering how you would even get started with a simple document.

However, that is not to say that the book is without problems. Let me list them in order:

1. Software that will format XSL FO is in its infancy. Therefore, although the examples work, you have to burn some shoe leather finding software that is compliant with the spec. It would have been better if the author had bundled an evaluation copy of either the Antenna House software which he claimed would format *almost* all of the examples or his own XFC software that he developed for IBM alphaworks. I did download the XFC software, but although written in Java, it is very much oriented towards a windows platform, and I could not concoct a way to get it to run on my linux machine (I gave up after discovering I had a non-compliant version of the xerces package). I think one of the reasons Michael Kay's Wrox XSLT book has been so popular has been because of his work on Saxon. Software would have made this book a 5 star book.

2. Downloadable examples. These were not available at first, but the author had them up within a week of my email, correcting an error on the publisher's web page. So, this went from a problem to a plus.

3. Pagination (Chapter 8) is not very clear. Some of the figure references seem to have been reversed (generally, in many places where the author refers to figure 8.1 you should read 8.2 and vice versa). This chapter needed a concrete example to start. Then the author could have gotten into the more esoteric issue of overlapping regions.

I wanted a book that would help me check out the capabilities of my ISP and to determine if we were in the vanguard or lagging behind. The book gave me the information I was seeking and I highly recommend it.

Bought the book...readit...liked it...recommend it

If you are doing a J2EE or JSP project, XMLC is worthy of consideration as an alternative to JSP. It works with any Java app server. Unlike JSP, it perfectly cleanly separates the View of a Model/View/Controller architecture.

This book is written by the XMLC code author. It is well laid out. While, most of the information in the book can be found online, the book lays it out more succinctly and provides a desk reference.

If you are frustrated with the messiness of JSPs, if you are considering XMLC for a project, or if you are using XMLC for a project, this book is a must have.

David Young's Enhydra XMLC Application Development presents XMLC development by first outlining the advantages of XMLC and the Enhydra platform. Then Young introduces progressively more complex development scenarios using XMLC and illustrates each topic with working examples. Enhydra XMLC Application Development is comprehensive, exceptionally well organized, and an ideal instructional text and a useful, long term reference work. User Level: Intermediate-Advanced, 450 pages.

Detailed. Gave a good overview and examples of XHTML and the different versions used. I like the design tips and extra projects.

I used this book for my XHTML class and the exercises were fantastic. Conformed with HTML 4 and XHTML 1.1 standards, and showed validation for all "flavors".

I started my VBA programming from zero for my department needs by using Google search. Although the job could be done, the process was time consuming (for search) and left questions unanswered.
If you want to save yourself time then this is a good book to start with. The layout is pretty good, and explain things clearly. I browsed the book but didn't read every chapter but found it's informative.
Don't expect to receive a lot of examples, but again you can find everything you need through web search.
Advance users should look for something else, like Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications (which I owned too).
I seldom bought computer books for long time (hey, educated by web search is free) since it's expensive and out-date too quickly. This book and above are what I'm willing to invest my money in for past few years. Beside, Amazon price is very competitive.

Still not finished, but I have been mostly very happy with the book so far. The section on automation was a key interest, and proved valuable, though I was hoping for more on the shell function, and identifying the correct string to open a wider variety of applications.

I was confused with a comment in chapter 17 concerning security popups in Outlook, that...

"When Excel attempts to send an e-mail message using Outlook, the application responds with a message to ask permission, as shown in Figure 17-12. The only way to prevent this message from coming up is by setting the macro security setting to low."

My experience to date is that digitally signing the project prevents the popups from Outlook 2003, even if the project is located in Excel. I haven't yet come to any section of the book that covers digital signatures, and the assertion that the only solution is to take the ill advised step of setting macro security to low makes me suspect that it might not be forthcoming.

Chapter 12 provided a lot of detail on interacting with Access, but some of the code seemed untested (undeclared variable and mis-spelled arguments in the two CreateTextFile subs). The chapter works as a good reference, but made for difficult reading.

Despite the above gripes, I have learned a tremendous amount from the book so far, and am anxious to come back for more. I liked the chapter on Class Modules, thought the native file handling in VBA was very well covered, learned a lot in the material on the Windows Scripting Host, and feel the text builds nicely from the basic to more involved topics. All in all one of the better VBA books I have read.

This is a great book that covers a lot of what you will need to know programming wise for web design on older browsers in HTML 3. We still largely use HTML 3 even today, and this book still has much relevence, however, some parts of this book are written for the much older mosaic browsers and are out of date. For a more up to date book, see the HTML 4 version of this book

I picked up this book as a newbie in HTML programming. After reading this book, I am able to do things I never dreamed of. These guys lay out questions people have in HTML and then go right over them, discussing exactly how to do it. I found it as a wonderful Beginner to Intermediate book. It's also a very awesome reference book, it doesn't completely rely on all of the code that's in the book. Very nice book. I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to learn HTML.

I enjoyed this book as an introduction to HTML. It is lucid, straightforward, and has reasonable examples of good and better practice. It is also light enough to lift! I'm tired of "modern" computer reference books that strain whatever parts of your wrist the mouse and keyboard have left intact. Just bought a copy for reference at work.

Creating your own web page can be as easy or as complicated as you make it. Even the simplest page can benefit from a solid understanding of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the system of marking a document so that web browsers will present it well. My preference is a bare-bones approach, with few graphics and simpleformatting. Even so, this book helped me make big improvements in theappearance of my pages. Someone putting together a fancier page willbenefit even more. If you are new to HTML, this book will introduce you to the basics and show you exactly how to create a professional-looking page. If you are already familiar with HTML, it provides good suggestions for making your page look better, and is a useful reference. If you are a maniac, never mind