XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition  Buy it at Amazon Read a Sample Chapter From The Publisher
	Author Elliotte Rusty Harold, W. Scott Means Publisher O'Reilly Length 600 pages vbRad Rating: 4 fingers up. (4 out of 5) Reviewed by Robert Gelb

XML hype has reached deafening levels, so it is difficult to tell the truth from the BS we are bombarded with daily. For instance, MS Office 2000 was billed as the office suite with XML features. In reality, XML "features" amounted to one small annoyance: when Word or Excel would save their files as Web pages, they would attach a small XML snippet with version and other miscellaneous information, essentially making it difficult to edit the file in any other editor. Office 2003, however, actually does carry out on the previous promise: the Pro edition has the ability to save the entire Word/Excel document as human readable XML.

It was with this state of mind that I started reading this book. I probably know as much about XML as the next programmer, which means that I haven't really done an "XML application". Even so, I thought that there wasn't much to XML, just .... Basically a strict version of HTML where you could make up your own tags. Boy, was I wrong.

XML in a Nutshell truly opened my eyes to this technology. If you think, you know XML, think again. Do you know all the technologies that are integral to XML, like DTD, XSL, XSLT, XPath, XLink, RDF, etc...? Do you know the difference between a well-formed and valid document? I am not even talking about technologies peripheral to XML like SVG, XUL and others.

The book starts out with what XML is NOT. Given the hype, it is a good thing. Then it dives into basic XML - the ... kind of stuff. It was a good refresher for me. Logically, the next section was on DTDs - you how to know how structure XML documents. Then, the alphabet soup of other technologies.

The volume is laid out very consistently. It takes you through necessary steps. For instance, you won't learn about RDF until you know technologies like DTD that are necessary for understanding RDF. Basically speaking, I can virtually guarantee that after reading (try and understand it as well) this book, you'll know XML inside and out. The author supplies examples for just about everything that he talks about. Thus, the readers see and understand what is happening. But don't take the book as a standalone resource. It is backed up by its publisher, O'Reilly, which provides a truly tremendous wealth of XML information on its web site.

Don't kid yourself - XML is a complicated subject. And because of it you can't expect to read it on a weekend and be a guru on Monday. In fact, the only way to become an XML expert is to sit in front of the PC and try out various XML/XSL code as you are reading the book. You will need a long-term reliable reference made specifically for a serious developer. This book definitely fits this need. It is also very comfortable to read. What I mean is that if you open the book on a certain page and just leave it, it won't close (like those big 1000 page XML books). Some books that I have read lately have this "feature" where if you open it to 180 degrees the pages fall out. This book is both flexible and well-made.