XML Programming (Core Reference) [ペーパーバック]

The reason I didn't rate this book higher was one thing that just kept annoying me throughout the book. It reads like they took an old book and threw in some material on newer XML specifications and Microsoft products, without updating the older material. Some examples of this are
1) They talk about the MSXML parser, but the last version they cover is 3.0 (even though 4 is included on the accompanying CD) and MSXML 4 has been out for quite some time, certainly longer than .NET. Yet there are entire chapters covering .NET and mentions of it throughout the book (mostly regarding Beta 2).
2) They show XML Notepad as an editor. Microsoft has discontinued the XML Notepad and the link in the book goes to a page that no longer exists.
3) Other links in the book do not exist and the tools have been renamed and thereby are harder to find on Microsoft's site.

The other primary minus for me was the author's assumption regarding your programming background. The authors use Visual Basic, ASP, Java, SQL and C++ without always explaining the code (Java and C++ are in the minority; VB, ASP and SQL are widespread). Most of the people reading this may not be familiar with all of these languages and thereby get a little lost in some of the examples.

So, if you're already comfortable with Microsoft programming and want to get up to speed quickly on XML, I would say this book is worth your while, but be ready for web links that don't work and check the products they refer to for newer versions.

If you're not comfortable with SQL and VB at a minimum, start there and then come back to this one or a similar title.

Firstly, the book spends an inordinate amount of text covering the basic basics of XML. Why? Anyone who has purchased this book has already been sold on XML and doesn't need to hear, once again for the Nth time, arguments in favor of its use.

Secondly, once the pointless argument in favor of XML has been offered, the authors rehash standard coverage of DOM and SAX. I suppose any "definitive" book on XML programming should cover these technologies, but the depth of coverage in this book is hardly greater than what can be obtained on the web for free. The same goes for the pedestrian coverage of SOAP. Just visit the W3 site and you'll get equally useful documentation on these standards (which by the way will be kept more up to date than the print coverage).

The authors do offer some useful code examples of a working web service, which is where the true value-add of the book is, but the coverage is a tiny portion of the full text of the book.

Even if you are an XML newbie, there are better introductions, namely O'Reilly's "Learning XML", or Addison Wesley's "XML Primer". For coding web services, O'Reilly's "Programming Web Services with SOAP" or ".Net Framework Essentials" are far better and illustrate the quality control at these superior publishers.