Comments for bpelpros.com

Comment on XML Developer’s Resource Library by Paul D. Ferguson

Paul D. Ferguson — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:51:40 +0000

This book is aimed at technically sophisticated readers who want to understand XML in its purest form. The book deconstructs the XML specification line by line, expanding the spec’s terse 32 pages into a complete exposition, with examples and background information that provide useful context for XML’s features and design. The only thing missing is an appendix with the full (unannotated) spec so that you could read straight through it, however, since the spec is readily available at the W3C web site, this is a very minor nit.

To really understand what XML is all about, there is no better source than the specification, and DuCharme does a great job illuminating it. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5

Comment on XML Developer’s Resource Library by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:36:47 +0000

The author and publisher have found a new and extremely useful format. The detailed explanation of the specification and the thinking behind the specification provide the best means I have seen to gain a deeper understanding of the XML – and to spot the fiddly details. The examples are clear and make the meaning of the formal specification clear.

Probably not the first book to read on XML unless you have some background, but a must as the second book to understand what it is really all about. Belongs on everybody’s shelf who has to teach or work with XML.

Goldfarb and Prentice Hall should be encouraged to bring out other books in the same format for other parts of the growing web standards such as XSL, RDF and XData when they are final.
Rating: 5 / 5

Comment on Professional SQL Server 2000 XML by gbworld@comcast.net

gbworld@comcast.net — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:45:09 +0000

Wrox has always prided themselves on code intensive books, and this is no exception. Unfortunately, they are also getting a bit intensive in the area of adding authors to be the first one to market. This leads to a book that seems a bit disjointed. With as few chapters as this book has, I do not see the need for so many authors. I guess it is the length.

Pluses in this book include the chapter on FOR XML and the chapter on OPENXML. I believe this is the area where most developers will like to spend the most of their time. I would have liked to see FOR XML EXPLICIT get a bit more coverage, as this is the bear, but the examples are workable, so I cannot complain too much.

I also enjoyed the updategram chapter. This ability was highly touted in Microsoft marketing events, but took quite some time to surface. The case studies help put the technology in a real world light.

The negatives are few. First, I believe far too much time is spent on XSD schemas, at least with the way it is presented. In a real world scenario, you are probably going to pull the schema from an existing database, which makes this material NULL and void. If you do get into writing XSD, you will find this material far too shallow.

I also would have liked to see how this technology could blend with the direction Microsoft is pushing .NET. I realize this is not the topic of the book, so I have not hammered on this. Perhaps the next book will be SQL Server 2000 and .NET?
Rating: 4 / 5

Comment on XML Developer’s Resource Library by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:19:43 +0000

I know this book is touted as the second book one should buy to discover XML, but I found Bob’s explanations excellent for understanding how and why this standard was created.

In the preface, Goldfarb describes the XML Recommendation document as being expressed in “rigorous, elegant (in the mathematical sense…), formal, and concise language.” The same can be said for this book’s style of writing. What could have been a very nerdy examination of the technical language used in a W3C document, is more literate and even includes passages from Eliot’s “The Waste Land.”
Rating: 5 / 5

Comment on Professional SQL Server 2000 XML by Byron Quam

Byron Quam — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:42:32 +0000

I had mistakenly thought that Wrox books were held to a higher standard. First getting a taste for them going through both of Rob Vieira’s two SQL Server Programming books and regarding them as the finest technical books I’ve ever seen. However this Professional SQL Server 2000 XML is a disappointment. Part of the problem lies with having 12 different authors because it seems a bit jumpy. I think I’ll really try to limit my future purchases to single source efforts. Also, no care was taken with the code examples that you can download from the Wrox website. The book shows the source but there is really no way of really matching the example to the source other than guessing the name. Often I’ve needed to open up all 15 or so files in the directory to realize that the particular example is not included. I’m picking my way through but it is not pleasant.
Rating: 2 / 5

Comment on XML Developer’s Resource Library by Hanadi

Hanadi — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:31:44 +0000

This book is an example of disorganizaiton. I am learning XML, and this book have given me hard time underestanding what is it all about. for example, it talks about stuff in chapter 2 that won’t be discussed until chapter 4, so you won’t be able to underestand anything since all chapters of the book follow the same rythm. In addition to that, there was no comprehensive examples that will help giving more or better underestanding. Bad Bad XML book.
Rating: 1 / 5

Comment on XML Developer’s Resource Library by Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:00:26 +0000

I really doubt that Bob knows anything about XML. Bob does not explain how to construct XML document, nor how to put it into reality. Just like when you go to a Swapmeet, the man keep telling you this is a good stuff, but he just can not tell you why it’s good. A lot of professors are just like that, they really know how to talk, but don’t know how to explain. Don’t buy this book, I am planning to return it to Amazon. The more you read this, the more you confused about XML ….
Rating: 1 / 5

Comment on Learn XML Tips by Sridhar Vijendran

Sridhar Vijendran — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:17:21 +0000

If you are looking for a book which gives the basics in a question and answer format , this is the book for you . Provides an introduction to XML and related technologies . If you are a beginner , this might be worth trying . Also it might elucidate some of the “why” questions for advanced learners . But this is certainly not a “How to” Kind of book.
Rating: 4 / 5

Comment on Professional SQL Server 2000 XML by Raul A. De Jesus, MCP; MCSD

Raul A. De Jesus, MCP; MCSD — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:10:47 +0000

It is a good book as far as explaning what SQL Server has to offer regarding XML capabilities but it should have covered the case studies fully with the .Net Framework. Also, it covers very good the IIS configuration, and how to manage XML Templates, XPath and Schemas. The book has a migration example from ASP to ASP.Net which does not cover ADO.Net. If you want a rich source on how to integrate SQLXML and the .Net Framework THIS IS NOT THE BOOK.
Rating: 3 / 5

Comment on Professional SQL Server 2000 XML by Paul Peterson

Paul Peterson — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:24:11 +0000

I looked at two other SQL Server 2000 XML books, but found this one to be the best – covering almost everything on SQL Server 2000 XML. Very well written, nice examples help understand the technology better. The chapter on Updategrams is very useful. I wanted to learn updategrams and this chapter covers it nicely to get started using them in production.
Rating: 5 / 5