Addison-Wesley Professional
second edition
May 2002
688 pages
Reviewed by Andrew Monkhouse, December 2003
(9 of 10)
Java developers who need to learn how to work with XML technologies will appreciate this book.
The introductory chapter, lightly touches on basics of XML. From then on the book works through the major APIs a Java developer will use to work with XML. The examples start off as a very simple XML document with a very basic Java application developed to work with it. Then the document and/or the Java application are enhanced to provide more complex scenarios and solutions. Common problems are discussed, as are their solutions.
I was pleased to see that the authors have considered the entire life cycle of working with XML documents, rather than assuming the user know how to get an XML document to work with. So no matter what situation the reader finds themselves in they will find an applicable section in the book.
Having so many authors does mean that there are variations in writing style, however it appears considerable effort has gone into minimizing the variations. One of the major areas I noticed was some authors had line numbers next to the sample code which were referenced in the chapter. Other authors did not dissect their code. However all code samples are easy to read, and the text going with them is of high quality, so I do not believe that this would cause a reader any problems.
I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who needs to work with XML from within a Java program
(9 of 10)
