RE: [xml-dev] book for beginners

[Norm Birkett <Norm.Birkett@reval.com>]

Catching up on the list after a prolonged distraction, I see no one has replied to your query. As a newcomer to XML myself, I can recommend the following--not because they're perfect, but merely because they helped me come up to my present speed (which, granted, isn't at all dizzying--but it's enabling me to function in a setting in which I have to interact with XML etc. just frequently enough to mean I need to know it, and just infrequently enough to make it hard to remember):

(Step 1) Study in tandem:

* Kevin Howard Goldberg, XML (2nd ed.) -- in the Visual Quickstart Guide series, which I detest, but this one worked for me
* Simon St. Laurent & Michael Fitzgerald, XML Pocket Reference (3rd. Edition)

(Step 2) If your interests lie anywhere in the direction of EITHER of the technologies mentioned in its title, then buy a copy of this one, study the introductory bits (throughout), and keep it by your side at all times:

* Michael Kay, XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (4th ed.) -- Wrox

(Meanwhile) 

* Follow this mailing list and the XSL list (at mulberrytech.com). Much of the discussion will be over your head, but you will learn all manner of fascinating bits and pieces along the way--and most important, you'll get a feel for the real XML world. (The books, for example, might lead you to wonder why anyone in his right mind would write XML Schema for anything. The lists will tell you that no one does unless forced to by some fairly compelling and unusual set of circumstances.)

* I also follow the schematron and relax ng lists, but they're not very active. I can't tell if that's because hardly anyone uses those technologies, or because those who do don't have many questions.

Warning: The preceding recommendations are based on a sample size of one, which should not be considered representative.

Norm Birkett

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Jolliffe [mailto:bobjolliffe@gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 4:02 AM
> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: [xml-dev] book for beginners
> 
> Does anyone have any book recommendations for a beginner student which
> covers the *fundamentals* of xml validation and processing?  Bearing
> in mind I guess that people would have different ideas of what is
> fundamental.  I would think a good overview should touch upon DTDs,
> W3C Xml Schema, RelaxNg, Schematron, NVDL, Xpath, Xslt, Xquery, XProc.
>  Maybe this list is too long.  Maybe it is missing something vital.
> Would be nice also to include something on the different homes and
> genesis of these things - W3C, OASIS, ISO - that students understand
> that specifications are not found in nature ...
> 
> Thanks
> Bob
> 
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