Amazon.com
The opening chapter--entitled "What is XML?"--is one of the best overviews of XML you'll find. It covers the history and the promise of the language and answers many of the basic questions new XML coders will undoubtedly have.
Author Alex Homer gives clear examples of the use of XML and covers what features IE 5 supports. This introduction is followed by a chapter that defines the XML document structure and shows how all of the various components, such as DTDs (Document Type Definitions), XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language), XPL (Extensible Pointer Language), and XLL (Extensible Linking Language) all fit together.
Next the author presents the details of how DTDs and XML schemas can be used to frame the data your XML documents will work with. He also provides good coverage of the Xlink and Xpointer languages for connecting XML documents and the information they access. The book explains the XML Document Object Model (DOM) with plenty of short code snippets to illustrate syntax. Appendices offer reference to the IE 5 DOM, XML constructs, and cascading style sheet properties. This title is great for learning XML, but it will serve you just as well down the road as a handy reference. --Stephen W. Plain
