Essential Xul Programming: The How to Guide for Web Developers and Programmers

by Vaughn Bullard, Michael C. Daconta, Kevin T. Smith

A revolutionary new technology for the rapidly expanding world of e-commerce, XUL (XML User Interface Language) is an XML-based user interface language that gives Web developers control over all aspects of the Web interface. Featuring two tutorials on programming with XUL, this book shows developers how to use basic XUL elements to build a sample interface for an e-commerce site, then goes on to explore more sophisticated applications by creating...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471415804
• ISBN13: 9780471415800
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great book! Very little BS

Bought this book about a month ago, so I think I've had a pretty good chance to review it. It's very good, despite the fact that Mozilla hasn't got up off their keesters yet! I'm an XML developer with limited Java experience, but the JXUL project they put in there as their open source project is very, very cool! That I think was worth the price of the book.I personally thought the RDF chapter was a monster (scary to me!) but very well covered! I'm sure when I progress as a programmer I'll be doing a lot of the RDF.I think the book is very well written, especially considering I am still a beginner/intermediate web developer.

'Essential XUL' is definitely cool.

I am a programmer interested in XML technologies, but I was not so familiar with XUL. I found that the book was fairly easy to read for someone new to the subject. It gave me the slow-paced tour of the technologies involved, and with the help of the code on the book's web site, I am able to watch the examples work. I'm now finishing up the case studies section, and I'm able to see how all of the technologies work together. This is a cool book about a cool technology. I would recommend that if anyone is interested in a differen approach to user interfaces, this book is for you.

Great Book!

Hey just picked this up at BN (sshh!) but I had to write a review about it. This is a superb book! Some thought was obviously put into this book as it is very well organized. There were some minor inconsistencies, but Hey, with the way Mozilla and those folks at Netscape have handled the last two years, it's a wonder the authors could get something out with such high quality. As a web systems/UI developer, I've found that most UI books are fairly fluffy with lots of pictures, but no real "meat on the bones". This book definitely breaks the mold.I really enjoyed the case studies. It's obvious that the authors care about their profession, as they seem to poke fun at themselves and world in general, than most open source developers poke fun at Microsoft. I'm glad that someone, I mean someone put out a theme reference. There is not even one reference out on the Net. Although it's changed in the last few weeks with the new release of Netscape 6.1, I found that they are already working on the corrections to the theme reference on the book's companion website.I also thought the XBL, RDF, and XUL Templates material was very well covered and very professional.

Well-written and a Great Guide

I read through Essential XUL, and I think that this is an extremely well-written book. As a developer, I've found that it has been difficult to get a lot of this information from some of the Internet documentation out there, and I'm glad that I can actually have this book to carry around. I also think the JXUL project that is discussed in the book is a good idea.

Good Book, But Gets Complex!

I just picked up a copy of this book a few days ago, and I was impressed with the in-depth sections on the book (XBL, RDF & XUL Templates, for example). I feel that the book is layed out in a very good way - the first section has overview of 'the basics' (CSS, XML, XUL), the second section has advanced features, and the third section had case studies. For people who are new to programming, and don't know XML, I would recommend another book before you start this one. The later chapters may be too complex and hard to digest for non-programmers. For me, I am familiar with XML and some of the Mozilla technologies, so I could skip over the intro section of the book. I am finding a lot of benefit out of the XUL Programmer's Reference section, as well as the advanced section. This book, used in combination with xulplanet.com, can be a good resource.