RE: [xsl] Books on XSLT/XPATH

Subject: RE: [xsl] Books on XSLT/XPATH
From: "Simon Shutter" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:34:52 -0800
Thanks everyone for their input to my original post.

I just ordered Michael Kay's XSLT 2.0 and XPATH 2.0 so I hope they don't
accelerate the production of another version (kidding of course - it sounds
like the next versions will be worth it for any improvements to the
information design as well as any edits to match the W3C final
recommendation.)

It seemed a toss up between Michael's books and Jeni Tennison's tome.  I
read a lot of negative user comments about Michael's books but they seemed
to be on the presentation not the content of the books.  What sold me on
Michael's books was the excerpt that was available for download.  As an XSL
novice I found it very readable and a valuable education on the background
to XSLT.  I trust the rest of the material will be as good.

Finally, as a novice how does one pronounce XSLT?  Is it X-S-L-T (which
seems cumbersome on my tongue at least) or some easier form?  For that
matter is there a guide somewhere to pronouncing all the various W3C
acronyms?

Simon


-----Original Message-----
From: Wendell Piez [mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: February 22, 2007 3:05 PM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [xsl] Books on XSLT/XPATH

At 12:08 PM 2/17/2007, Michael Kay wrote:
>I'm in the very early stages of discussion with Wiley about doing a 
>revised edition of the books to fix the few areas where the final specs 
>have diverged. Don't hold your breath.

Mike, if the word went out that a new updated and corrected edition, with
better indexes, page headers and navigation aids, were due out Any Day Now
(and so one might not want to buy the old one), do you suppose this might
motivate the publisher to accelerate its production?

Of course I'm kidding, but I couldn't agree more that the next edition
should be easier to look things up in. It's a "Programmer's Reference",
after all. In my own case, I only use the books when I get *really stuck*
and resources on the net are failing me -- mainly because they're so hard to
find things in, since I know the stuff is there. (I may not be your typical
user, but there you have it.)

For beginners, I still very much recommend Evan Lenz's little "XSLT 1.0
Pocket Reference" from O'Reilly (as well as Jeni Tennison's introductory
treatment, already mentioned). It only covers XSLT 1.0, but it's got an
excellent concise writeup of the XSLT processing model, which still applies
to 2.0, and that's the place where beginners are most prone to getting
stuck. You can start working with 2.0 right away with this book,
understanding only that when things get hard, you can also look elsewhere
since XSLT 2.0 almost certainly has a way to help. Master what's in its 172
pages and you'll gain quite a command of the language, in either version.

Cheers,
Wendell



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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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