Markup Languages Books

Rawlings does a first-rate job of conveying elegant solutions to very arduous problems. If you find yourself in the trenches trying to bridge the technology gap between modern tools and older EDI or flat file based systems - this is your book. Those without the budget for a commercial product will especially appreciate do-it-yourself practical code and easy to follow examples.

This book provides practical advice and examples on integrating XML into existing business systems. The book is easy to read and follow. The approach of the book is to break the problem down into a chain of simple problems, addressing each as a data 'filter'. The end result is to connect the input/output of a legacy system with the input/output of an XML parser.

I recommend this book to anyone faced with the problem of using XML to extend the reach of existing applications.

Mike Rawlin's book deals with the reality that legacy business applications are not readily converted to processing XML-formatted information. While XML works fine as the interchange format, you need to convert between that interchange format and the format your applications understand. Mike covers all of the minor nuances that you need to consider, presents a wealth of knowledge in an easily-understood format, and provides examples to boot.

A lot of IT people are busy making different applications running on different platforms "talk" to each other. XML was invented as the "Esperanto" of the IT world to get these systems to understand each other. In practice however it just isn't that simple, as most of these applications don't talk XML yet, until this book.

This book is a real do itbook. It does not teach you XML or XSLT but shows you how to use it. What I especially liked is that he discusses his design considerations, he wants you to understand the whys. Once he thinks you know the basics he goes back to his basic design and improves it to make it make it fully reusable and modular, making it even beter.

Mr. Rawlins gives you toolbox of utilities, with the source code, that can become the building blocks for your own application integration system.

I have not come across a book with as much usable code in my IT career. We have already redesigned quite a few of our systems because of it. If you are into connectivityyou cant be without this book.

Ps. The word Legacy in the title does not imply big mainframes.

Easy to read, in a refreshing unpretentious style, Rawlins explains numerous complicated concepts associated with using XML. Especially useful are the chapters covering the conversion of EDI formatted data into and out of XML and the converting of one XML format to another XML format. The inclusion of Java and C++ considerations in appropriate chapters provides excellent practical advice.

About half of this book is very Microsoft-specific (HTML applications, behaviors, etc.) However, the sections on XSL and interacting with the XML DOM are outstanding and contain much better explanations and examples than I've seen in any "pure" XSL book! I consider myself an XSL expert, but I still learned a great deal from this book. It's enabled me to write simpler, more concise and more efficient transformations. You can skip the Microsoft-specific stuff if you want and this book is still a great value.

This book is great! The chapters are well laid out and are easy to understand. It helped me learn a great deal about incorporating DHTML, XML and Web Scripting into my web applications. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to further expand their knowledge about web applications. The Web is the future and this book will lead you there!

This is a great book for those who are in web development. Very detailed and gives good scripting examples using ASP, HTML, XML, DHTML, and more. It even gives you some examples using JavaScript and VBScript. This book is well written and self explanatory. It helped me to understand, learn and write scripts that uses these components. I highly recommend this book. It will help your scripting be more efficient.

I was interested in this book to provide the components for building web applications. The book provides all the information in an easy to read manner so that I can create an application utilizing current web technology. The technical information provides information about Advanced IE functionality, DHTML, XML, ASP, and Web Scripting which allows me to write applications using the examples in this book. The example code was very useful which allowed me to integrate the sample code into new applications. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to integrate all these technologies in their applications.

I has been a Web developer for almost two years. Most of the books I have are very good for everyday work. However when I want more advance technique, It was very hard to find a good book. I am so glad to get this book. The book is easy to understand. There are more powerfull stuff for a Web developer to apply in the project. I am finding from chapter to chapter all the information I needed to finnish the project I was working on. .......................... This book is the book to buy.

Pretty much what I was looking for. Relatively thin book packed with 'to the point' info, with mostly unambigious explanation. Have not found any printing mistakes yet.
Money's worth.

I knew a little about XML before reading this book, but nothing in-depth. I've been a software developer for years however, so I didn't want a basics book, but something that covered the subject quickly and in depth. After reading the other reviews I bought this book and was not disappointed. I was particularly interested in XML Schema and XSLT, and this book does an excellent job with both. I'm not sure you can find a more thorough reference outside the standards documents themselves. Datatypes, restrictions, defining complex types--I use this book for XML Schema like I use K&R for C programming. Note that this book has almost no coverage of subjects outside the W3C standards, such as the different types of validating tools and parsers or other XML schema languages such as RELAXNG from Oasis. You will have to go elsewhere for a fuller understanding of the entire 'XML Universe'. The only real gripe I have with this book is its constant use of Microsoft in the examples, which grates on this long-time Linux user. Of course, its from Microsoft Press, so what can you expect. Fortunately XML itself is non-OS specific, so nothing in this book is really Microsoft-centric. All in all, a great reference.

If you are a knowledgable IT professional and need to either learn XML or increase your knowledge quickly, this book is for you. Complete, fast-paced, no dead wood, and designed with the busy IT professional in mind. It reminds me of the Wrox "Handbook" series.

It's 370 pages but half-size, so equivalent to a normal-size 185-page book. Best book purchase I've made all year. Weird for an MSPress book to be so good :-)

Take the hint, MS Press... make all of your books like this!

"XML Pocket Consultant" is the best XML book on the market. It is really worth every penny. This book is packed with useful information. My biggest disappointment is that I had such a hard time find the book. For anyone wanting to learn XML, XSL, XPath this is the book I recommend.

I seldom award five stars but this book deserves it. If you can only buy one XML reference book, buy this one; if you have XML books that you're not satisfied with, buy this one: The XML Pocket Consultant is *the* XML "sleeper" title.

In my mind, I've retitled the XML Pocket Consultant "The XML Comprehensive Quick Reference." The book presents every aspect of XML and related technologies in a clear, crisp, understandable style. The book's excellent content is augmented by a professionally crafted visual style (page layout, whitespace, typeface, headings, list construction, examples) that facilitates information access and transfer; I mention this because too many books of this type look like they were designed and produced using consumer-level desktop publishing software.

I'm not normally this enthusiastic about a book, but The XML Pocket Consultant is truly a treasure: It's the single most useful, helpful, 5.5" x 8" x 1.2" compendium of XML information I've so far found.

This book gives you a broad scope of the to be used topics when creating elearning sites. You will get a quick tutorial of the most important Macromedia features to get the process done. In a clear way building up from using templates, attaching stylesheets, showing and hiding layers with Dreamweaver and using Flash for simulation and user-interactivity the book introduces the interaction with databases by using Coldfusion.

I thought Coldfusion was rather difficult to learn, because the tips of the week by Macromedia were a little to quick for me. But Jeffrey Bardzell proved it is easy. In a straight-forward way you are taken by the hand to take all the basic steps for building a data-driven website.

I'm an assoc. prof. of New Testament currently working to produce an interactive web workbook for teaching/learning skills for New Testament interpretation. I want to give students practice developing close reading skills rather than ask them simply to drill content. For a couple of years, I have had a dream for such a site, and I felt sure it was buildable, but didn't know how. I care enough about how the interactions work and the relationship of content to design that I wanted to design the interactions myself if possible. Yet I didn't know anything but a little Dreamweaver and its CourseBuilder extension.

Working my way through a copy of Macromedia MX eLearning is changing all that. Wow! The book teaches how to develop interactions in Dreamweaver and Flash as well as offering several chapters on putting ColdFusion to work in eLearning. Each chapter includes a fine combination of hands-on work and explanation for why we are being asked to do what we're doing, especially at those places where some task is counter-intuitive. The book is also free of mistakes, typos and muddled language, a welcome plus when so many computer books seem to have been rushed to press without having been edited or proofed.

Bardzell's book is giving me two things: (1) hands on work with the software that introduces and reinforces learning without devolving into busywork and (2) a model for developing materials (like the book itself) that teach effectively from a distance. A+

I am a trainer and instructional designer at a university. I thought this book was very useful in helping me to use Flash MX for education. You would likely need some introductory training in Flash and Dreamweaver basics before using this book.

This is an excellent book where you learn how to integrate ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX, and Flash MX by building interactive learning applications. The exercises are explained in great details and contain many tips and techniques especially for Dreamweaver and Flash. The newer aspects of interacting ColdFusion MX with Flash MX are not covered, but for those of us still using ColdFusion 5 there is a good coverage of LoadVars. I recommend this book without any reservation as it is one of the best technical books I have read so far.

Jeffrey Bardzell's book is intelligently written with plenty easy-to-understand examples. He engages, inspires, and motivates learners throughout. His Dante's Inferno project makes learning fun. He breaks subject matter down into comprehendible pieces, using Aristotelian logic in places. This guy knows what he's doing. Of several computer books that I have purchased over the years, this is the first time I have written a review. You can learn eLearning and website design, and this book will teach you how-even if you are a motivated beginner, technical type, or humanities person-this book is suited for most everyone.

I hope this book is reprinted. It is the single source book of code that I keep on my desk. I have recommended it everyone who asks and I am sorry to see it is gone!!

After you have read an introduction book on HTML, you'll appreciate having this book nearby. The book has good examples and is easy to work with.

This book is probably the best and easiest-to-use HTML books out there. It's a little out of date now, since browsers have been updated, but I still use it and recommend it for quick reference.

I also use this book as a text, even though it is a bit dated compared to Castro's Visual Quickstart Guide (which I also use). The layout of the book is the reason it remains of value, and will so for years. For someone learning the basics of HTML, each two-page spread covers an HTML tag. The lefthand page describes the tag and dissects it, describing all attributes and values they can take. The right side shows an example of the code and how it looks in a browser. There is no clearer way to explain HTML for beginners than this. One caveat, though ... the appendix with the numeric codes for special and reserved characters is seriously flawed. If there is an edition for HTML4.x, the editor of that book had best make sure the errors in that table are corrected.

I've really enjoyed this book very much. This book provides a disection of each tag and a picture of the source code and the outcome. As a reference it's helpful, because it provides a clear and consise format. Plus, it'a a great size to carry around. Can't wait for the next edition!

I bought this book thinking it would provide a good overview of HTML. Turns out it also provides a very good understanding of web page design. I've been doing (very poor) HTML and some CSS for years. Now I realize that I still have a lot to learn, and this is the book that will help with the learning process. Even though I have a bit of experience, I've started at the beginning of this book and already learned a lot. And I'm only up to page 50! This book is well thought out, very logically laid out, and is a wealth of knowledge. And this book is also a great reference. Each two pages essentially stands on its own. Frankly, a great book regardless of your experience level.

The great thing about this book is that all the tasks are broken down into (mostly) two-page sections and the organization lends itself to being a great reference book.

PLUS - the information is current and easy to follow.

highly recommended for any web developer.

As a Web design teacher who deals with these issues on a daily basis, I have already decided I will use this as a textbook in the future. My students range from completely uninformed to reasonably practiced developers. This book will work equally with all of them.

Others have addressed the depth of the topics of the book, so there is little I can add there. I wanted to say how much I appreciate how short the lessons are. Although the book is designed for more advanced Web designers, a neophyte wanting to learn to develop Web pages could pick this book up and work through the lessons in short and easy steps, becoming reasonably well informed developers.

I also particularly appreciate the appendices in the back. One addresses XHTML, and the other Cascading Style Sheets. They are both easily used and full of information.

I highly recommend this book and plan to use it in relevant graduate and undergraduate courses (actually, I also plan to keep it by my side while I work). Now if I could just find a similarly satisfying XML book.

Thanks

What a great pickup this book has been! As someone who has worked with html at the code level for many years, I picked this up with the intention of honing my CSS skills. After reviewing the topics I already felt comfortable with so as to make sure I was doing things correctly, I was able to quickly get up to speed on the topics that most interested me.

Arranged so that skills build progressively through the book coupled with clear, bold page headers it is simple to flip through and easily find any section you are looking for. I especially like the way the author broke down large topics into smaller, scalable sub-topics that are clearly explained on two pages, eliminating the back and forth page flipping that some authors make necessary.

In addition to covering the most basic of html and CSS, the author doesn't shy away from introducing more advanced uses such as alternate-use style sheets and even the creation and implementation of RSS feeds.

This isn't a `dummies' book that tries too hard to be clever and jokey, it is a serious resource that quickly and clearly gets to the point while avoiding the dryness that some books fall prey to. I've never picked up a Wiley Press book before but will definitely consider them in the future.

This is a really great book for learning XHTML, CSS, and related web technologies. I like how comprehensive it is, covering topics that are mostly ignored by other HTML books like search engines, CSS hacks, and common pitfalls. Jam packed with very useful, well presented, and up to date information, you will get your moneys worth on this one.

This has to be the easiest and most simple way to learn HTML or to plane out enhance your site I love this book so much I'm going to buy The Project Cool Guide to Enhancing Your Web Site so I can enhance the already wonderful website I made by reading this book.

The Project Cool Guide to HTML is the greatest book I have ever seen about creating webpages. I have brought much more expensive books (upwards of $70.00), but they did not come close to giving me the understanding I gained from this title. It is written at an understandable level, and talks about some pretty cool things. It is also the cheapest HTML guide I have EVER seen. Well worth the money.

What an outstanding guide! I was writing HTML links and tables in less than one day. The interactive Web site makes this book invaluable!

This book is absolutely the best html book geared toward the beginner. The authors assume the reader has no knowledge of html and start teaching from the ground up. I was an early user of aol's personal publisher and felt limited by it. I bought project cool and knew enough about html to make very nice looking sites in less than a week. I hear PROJECT COOL GUIDE TO ENHANCING YOUR WEB SITE is on its way. I'll be the first to buy it!

I bought this book for my homeschooled daughter to use as a html textbook. It took a few days (chapters 1 & 2 are background/basics), but once she reached chapter 3 she was hooked and has been spending hours at it each day. I am amazed at what she has learned--all on her own. Most books promise more than they deliver, but this book, with the marvelous web site practice area, delivers more than expected. I would highly recommend it to any beginner.

I am currently working on a compiler that outputs SVG. 'Teach yourself SVG in 24 Hours' has enabled be to gain a good understanding of how to use some of the nice, handy features of SVG without having to spend ages geeking around on the internet looking for online tutorials!

It was a pleasent suprise to open a computing book that wasn't in too much jargon - quite a handy thing when its your first exposure to a new language. This book it written for everyone! (unless you have no interest in computers or the internet etc..)

Teach Yourself SVG in 24 Hours, I believe, is one of the best computer books I've read. I am a computer savvy with 5 years experiences in programming and network administration as well as database management. Recently I am working on a project involving SVG.

This book walked you through a series of detailed tutorials to build a dynamic weather forecast web page using SVG step by step. In each chapter, a new topic is covered in an easy-to-understand and informative manner, which makes the learning curve pretty flat. As the title suggests, this book is an introductory primer to a new technique so it is not intented to delve too deep into a specific topic. However, a good many hyperlinks to W3C's online SVG specification appear here and there for your reference if you would like to make your hands dirtier...In a nutshelll, if you would like to teach yourself SVG from the beginning, it is The book, though it may, by a large chance, take you more than 24 hours to go through it.

I am a graphic artist using Adobe Illustrator and I wanted to learn more about SVG. I asked the Adobe people about this file format that is included with the newest versions of Illustrator but was unable to find out much. Finally I found this great book.

This book begins with an overview and describes the justification and process of development of SVG. In chapter 2 it jumps right in and teaches the nuts and bolts of creating images with SVG. As I am not a coder or programmer, I was amazed at the simplicity. Once a few basics had been explained I was off and running. Anyone with even the most basic computer and a simple text editor can create sophisticated graphics.

Towards the end of the book is a section on using Adobe Illustrator and in the back there is a reference section for oddball color conversion. The book also comes with the Adobe Web Collection CD that includes the viewer and tryout versions of Illustrator and Photoshop.

I'm really excited by the potential of this technology and can recommend this book to anyone who wants to develop some expertise in a hurry.

Good Luck...Tom Burns

Web developers and designers alike should have a full acquaintance with this exciting new technology. There aren't many resources yet available, and this book will prove to be a trailblazer.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML implementation utilizing a markup language similar to HTML but created specifically to render and control graphics. It is a robust mix of technologies including the DOM, CSS, Xlink, XSLT and JavaScript, and using the Adobe® SVG Viewer (a free plug-in), it supports static and dynamic graphics and WAV or MP3 audio.

Web developers should learn SVG because it is open-source and built in a simple text editor. It gives complete control of each graphic element. Web designers should use SVG because it is powerful -- graphics packages such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Jasc Web Draw and others support SVG output. SVG also enables flash-like animation. In fact, SVG is THE open-source solution to web animation. No longer do you need expensive proprietary software to get the job done.

Anyway, this book is what you need. (That's how I learned all this.) Author Micah Laaker, while presenting the material in a comprehensive, straightforward and exciting manner, will leave an excellent reference guide on your book shelf. Buy it, read it and keep it handy.

Book is straight forward. Easy to read/follow. I had created HTML pages in the past. It was easy to migrate to WML. The scripting discussion (WMLScript) was very valuable.

The book presents working programs you will actually use:

Interacting with remote scirpts (Perl, ASP)
Validating forms using WMLScript
Dealing with limited RAM
Error detection and handling

Recommend.

Got me started within my first application in minutes. Book covers WML and WMLScript in detail. Includes some Perl scripts that let you interact with a remote server with your phone. Pretty cool. Would like to see some PHP -- maybe next edition.

I just added this book to my collection of WAP/WML titles.

I was pleased with the amount of code this book provides--probably 200+ WORKING programs. I've been able to make all of them work in the phone simulator and on my phone! That's a nice change.

If you are starting out, the intro chapters will get you up and running. If you have been doing this a while, cutting and pasting the book's code will save you time with things like interacting with Perl.

Recommend.

It's a good start, but it does go very slowly. You need to supplement it with WAP Integration immediately afterward if you want to get into any really advanced aspects of WAP. Experienced developers may even want to jump straight to the WAP Integration book.

When I first learned about computers, only a few of them existed in the world. Since then, something extraordinary has happened in computing about every ten years, like Aestiva's web-programming language HTML/OS which is the subject of this book. It grabbed my attention and turned my professional life in a new direction. ADVANCED WEB SITES MADE EASY teaches all major concepts of this exciting technology with many well chosen examples. It contains code and building blocks that can readily be used as the core of web-based applications. Included with the book is free access to a web site featuring solutions to the exercises, a user forum, book corrections, all the book's code in downloadable form, and your own copy of HTML/OS free for 30 days.

As you work your way through the book, you'll get a good understanding of this powerful and flexible language. Chapter after chapter teaches you how easy it is to make sophisticated use of it by adding just a few lines of BASIC-like code to your HTML documents. You'll also begin to think in a new way about web computing. HTML/OS frees you from the hassles of systems integration. Whether you just want to add dynamic features to an existing site, design complex web sites, or develop web-based software, you'll never have to worry about compatibility. It runs on all platforms and includes a built-in database engine.

You'll be well equipped to build advanced web sites with this clearly written book, its companion web site, the HTML/OS manual, and the Aestiva User Center with its many ready-made examples of commercial applications and utilities, collection of sample code, and extensive knowledge base.

"Advanced Web Sites Made Easy" is a remarkable book. I read lots of third-party technical books, and this one really stands out.

It's well written, the explanations are clear, the examples are not only useable code but paced so as to be make learning progressive, and there's no fluff or patronizing chattiness. What's amazing is how often the chapters answered the questions I was having AS I was having them.

I feel really lucky that this book was available when I came to HTML/OS. It's great software (I almost don't want other web developers to know how good it is) but the official documentation and help just aren't enough.

I especially appreciate the opening and closing sections, which give some historical pespective on this kind of software development, and illuminate some potential business uses that were obscure to me as a web developer.

Kudos on a really fine piece of technical writing.

i was not web programmer before and i found this book in aestiva H2O web site, it was my first advanced web programming and was really easy to achive perfect results

the only thing the author may need to add is a CD-Rom, book some time have long code parts or at least a web location where you can copy and paste the codes

also book did not mention that aestiva has released free and smaller copy of HTML/OS called H2O Gold, and because this release if free, it will encourage newbies to start learning HTML/OS rather than the $800 for HTMLOS PRO, the book is very usefull too if you just want to use H2O only.

last advice, if you totally new to web programming then get this book with a free copy of H2O and you really done, do not bother yourself again with complicated PHP and PERL things

The Aestiva HTML/OS program makes creating interactive websites with databases, search on demand systems, and other usually complicated programming tasks quite easy. I have NO programming experience. Aestiva's near-English commands and simple coding structure mean that I have built and helped to build dozens of sites. The syntax is easy to pick up (learn by doing) and the online lessons that come with each copy make the learning FAST. If you want more control of your website and less dependence on gurus I urge you to read this book.

ADVANCED WEB SITES MADE EASY is simple, clear and easy to understand with lots of examples and exercises. It travels deep in advanced HTML/OS programming for the more advanced programmers.
I have been working with Aestiva HTML/OS for 5 years; I have used PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion and many other similar products. I haven't found anything else that can come close to the performance, flexibility and easiness of use of Aestiva's engine. It's a tool to be use by beginners as well as veteran professionals in the Internet industry, like myself.
This book is a must for all web developers....