Programmer Musings

Review of XML Bible

XML Bible
Elliotte Rusty Harold
IDG Books, 1999

As computer books go, this book is old. However, it does a spectacular job of handling all of the nitty-gritty details of XML. I first stumbled across this book when it was new. The only really definitive information you could find on XML was the W3C recommendation itself. This book does a very good job of explaining most aspects of the XML recommendation in a more conversational style.

Currently, most people who need to work with XML know (or believe they know) enough about it to work effectively. The W3C recommendation is still the place to go for definitive answers to clear up any confusion. But, if you need to be the expert, and you don't want to spend a lot of time reading the official version, this book will probably answer any question you have, without putting you to sleep.

Although the book is very complete on XML, it does not cover any of the more recent tools and specifications. This is understandable since it was written before they existed. In spite of that, I still highly recommend this book.