Markup Languages Books

After reading this book, I still didn't know how to insert an e-mail address or jpeg into my web page. It did not provide step-by-step direction and certainly did not help you when things don't work as easily as the book claims. Not as good as the QuarkXPress Quickstart. A waste of money. I had to go back and find another book. Langer also has an annoying habit of writing "I discuss topic X in chapter X" every other sentence, which splatters you all over the book when you're trying to research a problem.

If you're looking for a quick overview of PM, this may work for you. I was dissapointed at the gaps that are in the book and the obvious things that were left out. If you just want to get a quick, simple web page up, get another book, this one won't get you there without a lot of answers coming from another source. With all due respect to the author, this volume feels rushed and incomplete.

If you don't know jak about XML, you may find that this guy just does not know how to write. When I read (top of p. 4) "a tag is simply the opening or closing tag or the empty tag", that was it, I gave up (think of a good analogy.. "a noun is a type of word"; "an electronic device is a thing that uses electronics"). I'm sure Ed is good at all things XML but he is clearly a programmer who can't explain. Lots of definitions to memorize, but no clear examples that would clarify what takes a thousand words to read. Markup is thrown around without clearly definition; historical context would have helped, eg, troff and nroff, Latex, with embedded tags,
the similarity to HTML's presentation aspect... It's an OK book but hard to read. On the plus side, it is fairly concise. I give it a C- to D.

I would not characterise this book as being elegant in phrase. Yet in a somewhat mechanistic way, it does teach the basics of XML. Enough so that you can understand DTDs, Schemas, mixed content mode etc. Where, for example, you hopefully appreciate that mixed content should be avoided if you are defining a new XML application. A little ironic, because XML came from SGML, and the latter is often used in mixed mode.

If you need a quick way to learn XML, this book should be adequate. But if you have time, try consulting a more comprehensive text.

The DRAW and PHOTO-PAINT parts of this book are good. However, the book must have been written on a beta version of the program. They missed several functions, such as the program will save the image file to the root directory so all URL's are correct. They spend far too much time on the WEB.DRAW module and not enough on WEB.DESIGNER and the WEB.WORLD. If you have never used DRAW this will help. If you are experienced in DRAW, it will be frustrating. When you are working with a beta version, you should warn the reader. PKGibson

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.

I got this book with the intent of writing a set of custom control to interact with a database in real time over the web, it was probably a bad choice. Though the book itself was very good, I found the content to be a little basic for my requirements. Probably a good starting point from an administrative or reasonably junior programmer's point of view, but not really in-depth enought to satisfy a seasoned veteran =]

I bought this book a few months ago and have used it as a reference several times. Each time, I am frustrated that it doesn't have a detailed Table of Contents or an Index. This seems especially curious for a "reference" book.

Since the HTML tags are listed alphabetically, the author claims it doesn't need an index. I disagree. Besides tags, one might want to look up tag attributes, or perhaps concepts or synonyms.

In summary, I feel that this book is flawed as a reference, and the price seems rather high, as well.

I program and Network I have learnt to do most all that I do on computers through example books. Kathryn Toyer has made a poor job with this book, especially as this is such an easy program to learn. She includes the "example disk" attached to the back page that has examples in text the same as the book. The book is filled with snapshots of examples from the program with parts missing on the command lines. Example the chapter on FRAMES. Time to get through the book and understand most of it, 14 hours.

1) The author blithely attempts to cover both XHTML and XML in this book, and does an absolutely horrible job; He tries to cover too much in one text which in my opinion, does a great disservice to the reader. **LOL it's like talking to someone who claims to be an expert in several topics, yet knows only vague generalities which anyone can pick up within five minutes of reading at their local bookstore**

2) Lots of time is spent discussing very (basic) HTML tags; might I suggest the visual quickstart guide (5th edition or higher) from Elizabeth Castro.

3) If one is serious about learning the ins and outs of XML and all of its technologies, (XSLFO, DTD's, XSLT, XHTML, XML Schema, etc) might I also suggest "XML Family of Specifications"...its a very dense text, chock full of information, challenging at times, but worth every penny.

The book is very weak in content and has absolutely no practical examples. I'm not an expert in XML, so I won't give a technical estimate, but with new technology like XML one should not only show his favorable opinion, but provide examples to prove it's value. Title is also very misleading - in fact you've got a combination of 'appreciating the need of xml' and XML short description.

I had to buy this book for a classs I was taking and I wish I could've returned it instead of using it. To give the book some credit, the explanations are easy to understand and the author gives good examples. However, the codes he gives are useless, because most of them are spelled wrong. For a coding that relies on accuracy, this book should have been edited better. My suggestion: Find a different book to teach yourself CSS and XHTML. Pretty much anything would be better than this book.