Re: [xsl] Books on XSLT/XPATH

["Dimitre Novatchev" <dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have commented more than once on the great value of Dr. Kay's XSLT
2.0 and XPath 2.0 books.

Recently I was trying to understand how to implement a lexical scanner
for XPath 2.0. While the description in the XPath 2.0 Recommendation
was very complicated and overly confusing, I found Dr. Kay's
definition of the lexical aspects of the language very understandable
and instructional.


Hopefully they will incorporate Dr. Kay's lexical and grammar
definition (at least as a matter of style) in a 2.1 or Errata version
of the recommendation.


--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play


On 2/16/07, Joern Nettingsmeier <nettings@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> M. David Peterson wrote:
> > On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:54:29 -0700, Simon Shutter <simon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> With XSLT2 recently becoming a final recommendation, will there be a
> >> spate
> >> of new books or can I reliably purchase texts published in 2004/2005?
> >
> > Good question.  Here's my take: I use Dr. Kay's XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0
> > titles on a near daily basis, and while there are certainly differences
> > in the spec of 2004/5 and today, generally speaking they're small, edge
> > case changes, of which I can only assume the necessary erata will be
> > available for @
> > http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-0764569090,descCd-view_errata.html
> > before too much time passes.
> >
> > That said, given that,
> >
> > 1) Dr. Kay is one of the most active (if not *the* most active
> > contributor to this list), and in cases particular to his books as well
> > as Saxon, the response time for support is near instant.
> > 2) The activity on this list is *HIGH*.  When problems are presented,
> > solutions are near guarenteed to soon follow.
> >
> > With all of the above in mind: Go buy both Dr. Kay's XPath 2.0 and XSLT
> > 2.0 titles, and find comfort in knowing that on the rare occassion you
> > find an error, the fix will arrive shortly after a post to this list.
>
> seconded. i've got both xpath2 and xsl2, and they are great, with two
> minor gripes: they could easily be a little shorter without losing much
> of the depth (but then again, all explanations are foolproof), and wrox
> messed up the the page headers big time. they are totally useless, since
> you don't see at a glance which element or function is being discussed,
> which is a showstopper for a reference handbook. the books could also
> use alphabetic markers on the edge. the content is excellent, though.