XML Book List

Buy It

An essential book for any XML user.

Browse It

This book may be useful for some people. Skim through it in your local bookstore to see if you like it before laying out your cash.

Recycle It

Toss it in the recycling bin. ("Burn it" would have been more alliterative here, but I have a general aversion to advocating book burning, even in jest. I also considered "bag it" and "barf on it" at which point I decided alliteration wasn't that important.).

XML Books Currently in Print

XML Complete

by Steven Holzner

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• ISBN: 0-079-13702-4
• Pages: 600
• Price: $44.95
• Publication Date: December, 1997
• Bottom Line: Recycle It
• Order from amazon

A detailed look at the XML specification from the perspective of a programmer who needs to write code to parse XML files. Not useful for most people who simply want to write XML documents.

Presenting XML

by Richard Light

• Publisher: Sams
• ISBN: 1-575-21334-6
• Pages: 414
• Price: $24.99
• Publication Date: September, 1997
• Bottom Line: Browse It
• Order from amazon

As is common in the "Presenting..." series, this book rehashes a lot of philosophy, and hype from various white papers and press releases without adding a lot new or providing much technical detail or practical how-to information. As the earliest book to be published about XML, this is virtually guaranteed to be the most out of date.

XML: Extensible Markup Language

by Elliotte Rusty Harold

• Publisher: IDG Books
• ISBN: 0-764-53199-9
• Pages: 400
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: August, 1998
• Bottom Line: Buy It
• Order from amazon

I can't offer you an unbiased opinion about this book (after all, I wrote it) but I can say that it's the first book I've seen that actually shows you how to publish your XML documents on the Web. On the other hand, the XSL material is out of date.

XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques

by Dan Connolly

• Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
• ISBN: 1-565-92349-9
• Pages: 250
• Price: $29.95
• Publication Date: November, 1997
• Bottom Line: Browse It
• Order from amazon

This issue of the W3 Journal contains various interesting perspectives on XML from such luminarios as Jon Bosak, Tim Bray, Peter Murray-Rust, and David Siegel. However it's already out of date, and doesn't go into much technical detail in any depth.

The XML Handbook

by Charles F. Goldfarb, Paul Prescod

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Computer Books
• ISBN: 0-130-81152-1
• Pages: 450
• Price: $39.95
• Publication Date: August, 1998
• Bottom Line: Recycle It
• Order from amazon

Superseded by the second edition

XML in Record Time

by Natanya Pitts-Moultis

• Publisher: Sybex
• ISBN: 0-782-12340-6
• Pages: 548
• Price: $29.99
• Publication Date: February, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML for Dummies Quick Reference

by Mariva H. Aviram

• Publisher: IDG Books
• ISBN: 0-764-50383-9
• Pages: 240
• Price: $14.99
• Publication Date: June, 1998
• Order from amazon

XML for Dummies

by Ed Tittle, James Michael Stewart, Ramesh Chandak

• Publisher: IDG Books
• ISBN: 0-764-50360-X
• Pages: 377
• Price: $23.99
• Publication Date: May, 1998
• Bottom Line: Recycle It
• Order from amazon

XML by Example : A Webmaster's Guide

by Sean McGrath

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-139-60162-7
• Pages: 450
• Price: $39.95
• Publication Date: June, 1998
• Order from amazon

Web Publishing With XML in Six Easy Steps

by Bryan Pfaffenberger

• Publisher: Academic Press
• ISBN: 0-125-53166-4
• Pages: 350
• Price: $34.95
• Publication Date: December, 1998
• Order from amazon

Web Developer.Com Guide to Creating Web Channels With Dynamic Html and CDF : With Dynamic HTML, XML, and CDF

by Lee Purcell

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• ISBN: 0-471-25168-2
• Pages: 416
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: June, 1998
• Order from amazon

Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

by Simon North, Paul Hermans

• Publisher: Sams.net
• ISBN: 1-575-21396-6
• Pages: 512
• Price: $29.99
• Publication Date: April, 1999
• Order from amazon

An entry-level book

Structuring XML Documents

by David Megginson

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-136-42299-3
• Pages: 400
• Price: $39.95
• Publication Date: April, 1998
• Bottom Line: Buy It
• Order from amazon

This book focuses almost completely on designing and writing DTDs for documents as opposed to databases. (A magazine article is a document; a phonebook is a database.)

The SGML FAQ Book: Understanding the Foundation of HTML and XML

by Steven J. Derose

• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishing
• ISBN: 0-792-39943-9
• Pages: 288
• Price: $68
• Publication Date: June, 1997
• Order from amazon

Practical Guide to SGML/XML Filters

by Norman E. Smith

• Publisher: Wordware Publishing
• ISBN: 1-556-22587-3
• Pages: 550
• Price: $59.95
• Publication Date: October, 1998
• Order from amazon

Mastering XML

by Chuck White, Ann Navarro, Linda Burman

• Publisher: Sybex
• ISBN: 0-782-12266-3
• Pages: 928
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: November, 1999
• Order from amazon

Designing XML Internet Applications

by Michael Leventhal, David Lewis, Matthew Fuchs

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-136-16822-1
• Pages: 582
• Price: $44.95
• Publication Date: May, 1998
• Order from amazon

SGML Buyer's Guide: A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and Choosing the Right SGML and XML Products and Services

by Charles F. Goldfarb, Steve Pepper, Chet Ensign

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-136-81511-1
• Pages: 450
• Price: $55
• Publication Date: January, 1998
• Order from amazon

The XML and SGML Cookbook

by Rick Jelliffe

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-136-14223-0
• Pages: 650
• Price: $55
• Publication Date: June, 1998
• Bottom Line: Buy It
• Order from amazon

This book looks at markup from a design patterns viewpoint. Part 2, "Document Patterns", features patterns for most basic structures. The book also has better than average treatment of internationalization and notations.

Professional Stylesheets for HTML and XML

by Frank Boumphrey

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00165-7
• Pages: 500
• Price: $29.99
• Publication Date: July, 1998
• Bottom Line: Browse It
• Order from amazon

The CSS material is OK, but the XSL material is badly out of date.

XML Black Book

by Will Kelly, Natanya Pitts-Moultis

• Publisher: Coriolis
• ISBN: 1-576-10284-X
• Pages: 640
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: December, 1998
• Order from amazon

Just XML

by John Simpson

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-139-43417-
• Pages: 375
• Price: $34.99
• Publication Date: September, 1998
• Order from amazon

The XML Companion

by Neil Bradley

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• ISBN: 0-201-34285-5
• Price: $28.95
• Publication Date: September, 1998
• Order from amazon

Client/Server Data Access With Java and XML

by Dan Chang, Dan Harkey

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• ISBN: 0-471-24577-1
• Pages: 606
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: September, 1998
• Order from amazon

XML Specification Guide

by Liam Quin, Ian S. Graham

• ISBN: 0-471-32753-0
• Pages: 256
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: February, 1999
• Order from amazon

Java Programming for Windows : Using Microsoft AFC, WFC, and XML

by Mark Watson

• Publisher: Morgan Kaufman
• ISBN: 1-558-60516-9
• Pages: 400
• Price: $39.95
• Publication Date: September, 1998
• Order from amazon

XML in Plain English

by Sandra E. Eddy

• Publisher: IDG
• ISBN: 0-764-57006-4
• Pages: 608
• Price: $24.99
• Publication Date: November, 1998
• Order from amazon

XML Web Kit

by Charles F. Goldfarb, Sean McGrath, John Simpson

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-130-20354-8
• Price: $99.99
• Publication Date: November, 1998
• Order from amazon

Building XML Applications

by Simon St. Laurent, Ethan Cerami

• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill
• ISBN: 0-071-34115-3
• Pages: 512
• Price: $44.95
• Publication Date: June, 1999
• Order from amazon

The Latex Web Companion : Integrating TeX, HTML and XML

by Michel Gossens, Sebastian Rahtz

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• ISBN: 0-201-43311-7
• Pages: 448
• Price: $36.95
• Publication Date: May, 1999
• Order from amazon

Platinum Edition Using HTML 4, XML and Java 1.2

by Eric Ladd, Jim O'Donnell

• Publisher: Que
• ISBN: 0-789-71759-X
• Pages: 1400
• Price: $59.99
• Publication Date: January, 1999
• Order from amazon

Professional XML Applications

by Frank Boumphrey, Olivia di Renzo, Jon Duckett, Joe Graf, Paul Houle

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00152-5
• Pages: 600
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: December, 1998
• Bottom Line: Browse It
• Order from amazon

Understanding SGML and XML Tools: Practical Programs for Handling Structured Text

by Peter Flynn

• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Press
• ISBN: 0-792-38169-
• Pages: 432
• Price: $84
• Publication Date: August, 1998
• Order from amazon

This book mostly discusses XML and SGML software, though the first two chapters explain SGML and XML from the beginning.

XML: The Annotated Specifications

by Robert Ducharme

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-130-82676-6
• Pages: 400
• Price: $44.99
• Publication Date: December, 1998
• Order from amazon

XML in Action

by William J. Pardi

• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• ISBN: 0-735-60562-
• Pages: 400
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: March, 199
• Order from amazon

XML, langage et applications

by Alain Michard

• Publisher: Eyrolles
• ISBN: 2-212-09052-8
• Pages: 376
• Publication Date: November, 1998
• Order from amazon

In French, 230 French Francs

XML in IE5 Programmer's Reference

by Alex Homer

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00157-6
• Pages: 479
• Price: $29.99
• Publication Date: May, 1999
• Order from amazon

The XML Bible

by Elliotte Rusty Harold

• Publisher: IDG Books
• ISBN: 0-764-53236-7
• Pages: 1050
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: August, 1999
• Bottom Line: Buy It
• Order from amazon

Everything (and I mean everything) you need to know to build Web sites using XML. This is a vastly expanded and revised version of my previous book, XML: Extensible Markup Language with up-to-date coverage of XML, XSL, CSS1 and CSS2, DTDs, XHTML, RDF, and a lot more.

XML Design and Implementation

by Paul Spencer

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00228-9
• Pages: 426
• Price: $39.99
• Publication Date: April, 1999
• Order from amazon

Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical

by Simon St.Laurent

• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill
• ISBN: 0-071-34621-
• Pages: 512
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: July, 1999
• Order from amazon

The first half of the book covers fairly generic XML but the examples and later chapters focus on scientific and technical applications like MathML, Chemical Markup Language, Weather Observation Markup Format, BioML, Astronomical Instrument Markup Language, and so forth.

Building Web Sites with XML

by Michael Floyd

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-130-86601-6
• Pages: 400
• Price: $44.99
• Publication Date: December, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML Elements of Style

by Simon St. Laurent

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• ISBN: 0-072-12220-X
• Pages: 320
• Price: $29.99
• Publication Date: December, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML Elements of Style is aimed at developers who already have at least a basic understanding of XML. It covers the XML 1.0 and Namespaces in XML Recommendations in detail - everything from elements and attributes to unparsed entities and notations. Interoperability issues get special highlighting, including details on the interactions between Namespaces and XML and the behavior(s) of non-validating parsers.

Despite the title, this book does not cover CSS or XSL in depth - it covers 'style' used in a more general sense, as best practices. Developers looking for a guide to programming style in SAX or the DOM would probably be better served by other books as well.

Pure XML

by George M. Doss

• ISBN: 6-723-16013-3
• Pages: 600
• Price: $24.99
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML: A Primer, 2nd edition

by Simon St. Laurent

• Publisher: DG Books Worldwide
• ISBN: 0-764-53310-X
• Pages: 448
• Price: $24.99
• Publication Date: September, 1999
• Bottom Line: Buy It
• Order from amazon

A solid introduction to XML 1.0 though it has very little to say about more recent developments like namespaces and stylesheets.

Data on the Web : From Relations to Semistructured Data and XML

by Serge Abiteboul, Peter Buneman, Dan Suciu

• Publisher: Academic Press/Morgan Kaufmann
• ISBN: 1-558-60622-X
• Pages: 257
• Price: $44.95
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

Building Corporate Portals With XML

by Clive Finklestein, Peter G. Aiken

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• ISBN: 0-079-13705-9
• Pages: 529
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

Professional XML

by Jon Duckett, Mark Birbeck, Michael Kay, Stephen F. Mohr, Didier Martin, Steven Livingston

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00311-0
• Pages: 750
• Price: $59.99
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML Pocket Reference

by Robert Eckstein

• Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
• ISBN: 1-565-92709-5
• Pages: 107
• Price: $8.95
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

Professional Visual Basic 6 XML

by James Britt, Teun Duynstee, Dan Denault, Ash Rofail, John Messing, Kevin Lundy

• Publisher: Wrox
• ISBN: 1-861-00332-3
• Pages: 500
• Price: $49.99
• Publication Date: March, 2000
• Order from amazon

The XML Handbook - 2nd Edition

by Charles F. Goldfarb, Paul Prescod

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• ISBN: 0-130-14714-1
• Pages: 1074
• Price: $44.99
• Publication Date: November, 1999
• Order from amazon

XML: A Manager's Guide

by Kevin Dick

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• ISBN: 0-201-43335-4
• Pages: 224
• Price: $29.95
• Publication Date: October, 1999
• Order from amazon

Unreleased Books about XML

Practical Guide to XML

by Norman E. Smith

• Publisher: Wordware Publishing
• ISBN: 1-556-22635-
• Pages: 350
• Price: $29.95
• Publication Date: July, 1999
• Order from amazon