DefinitiveXmlBooks

Last edit December 14, 2007
What are the best XML books available today (January, 2004)? Is the list below still valid and books in print?

Recommended books:
  • "XmlElementsOfStyle" by Simon St. Laurent, McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-212220-X
  • "Java And XML" by Brett Mclaughlin published by O'Reilly ISBN 0-596-00016-2
  • "The XML Companion" by Neil Bradley, published by Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-201-342855
  • "WeavingTheWeb" by TimBernersLee, published by Harper San Fransisco ISBN 0062515861
  • "XML Bible, Gold Edition" by Elliot Rusty Harold, published by Hungry Minds ISBN 0-7645-4819-0. Wow. Great.

Books, seen, but not yet "recommended" by anyone:
  • "The XML Handbook" by Paul Prescod, Charles F. Goldfarb ISBN 013055068X
  • "Beginning Xml" by Kurt Cagle, Dave Gibbons, David Hunter, Nikola Ozu, Jon Pinnock ISBN 1861003412
  • "Step by Step XML" by Michael Young ISBN 0735610207
  • "Inside XML" by Steve Holzer ISBN 0735710201
  • "XML by Example" by Benoit Marchal ISBN 0789722429 -- currently reciving poor reviews

Online articles:
Currently I'm reading Java And XML by Brett Mclaughlin published by O'Reilly ISBN 0-596-00016-2 (Please support your local bookstore.) The book is broken into two major parts. The first eight chapters describe the alphabet soup that is XML-related technologies. Very simple code samples are also provided. The remaining chapters describe a handful of uses for XML in practice: web publishing frameworks, XmlRpc slash SOAP, etc.

There are not a lot of implementation details in this book, but it is the best introduction I could find. I don't think there is anything "definitive" about XML yet, so enumerating DefinitiveXmlBooks is really impossible. There is no K&R for XML. The book points out problems with XML technologies and the organizations that are currently working on improvements. Unless you already know XML, I'd recommend this book.

Book recommendations for learning XML. (Assume the reader has a traditional CS background.)

Although I "get" the idea in general terms I've not found a clear, well-written explanatory text that explains the details.

I'm looking for something that is written for people
  • ... who have written compilers before and know what a formal grammar is, but
  • don't know SGML or their way around the SGML/XML/HTML standards literature.

In particular, I want to learn about document validation and the precise terms of the DTD structure.

The Charles Goldfarb book seems rather overpriced and I'm not impressed by the endless plugs for commercial products. Megginson's Structuring XML documents on the other hand seems to assume familiarity with the basic concepts that I wish to learn. It can't be as complicated as it sounds - I suspect <cynicism amount="lots"> that a lot of the XML prose is just quickly hacked to get it to market </cynicism>.

Can anyone make a decent recommendation? (Thanks). In lieu of a book, try http://www.xml.com/axml/axml.html for an excellent annotated presentation of the XML 1.0 Specification.

A good little essay on what XML is good for and how it is being hyped for applications that really don't suit it: http://www.pobox.com/~graydon/markup-abuse.html

I like XmlElementsOfStyle. (See that page for details.) -- JeffGrigg

Well, I liked "The XML Companion" well enough. It's thorough, serious, doesn't read like one of those "for idiots" books. As an appendix it has the DTD for the book itself. It was published in 1998, so it may be a bit dated now.

I would also recommend WeavingTheWeb to anyone who really wants to understand XML in a larger context. While not exclusively about XML, it explains how XML plays a key role in TimBernersLee's vision for the WorldWideWeb, and why and how it came about.

-- RandyStafford

Just a little word of warning: anything Micro$oft says about XML has to be taken with a grain of salt. Billy Boy wants to pervert the world with MSXML, his own special flavor. Anything Microsoft says about XML might be a lie since they aren't very clear about what is really standard and what is their own (per)version. If they write stuff that comes clean on this matter please refactor this rant out.

What does a person do with a book like Processing XML with Java? ISBN 0201771861 (or http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xmljava/)

Free XML Book http://www.theserverside.net/books/addisonwesley/EssentialXML/downloads/EssentialXML.zip -- AliMotaz

CategoryDefinitiveBooks CategoryBooks, CategoryXml CategorySemanticWeb