XML Programming with VB and ASP

by Tracey Wilson and Mark Wilson

An introduction to XML for both beginner and intermediate VB and ASP developers featuring over 50 pages of example code and a best-practices approach to XML on the Web and in 3-tier development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1884777872
• ISBN13: 9781884777875
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Manning Publications
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Probably the best reference (book) I've read in a long time

I've read alot of technical books over the past few years. In my current role as a technical trainer I've read many books for review, and so I could recommend them to my students. This is definately a keeper. Rarely do I find a technical book that I can read and "ENJOY". The methodology of theory, example, and then an in-depth explaination of the example is an effective learning tool and in a weekend I was creating examples in Visual Basic and ASP using XML. I had been surfing the web for a couple of weeks and had to wade through a lot of articles to find what I was looking for. Even after this I still hadn't formed a clear picture of the process involved. This book tied everything togather nicely. If I were to recommend a book to a beginner or a seasoned pro looking for an effective means of learning XML,then this is it.

Pratical Beginners Guide

Though I wish the examples in the book were more complete, this books get 5 stars for being both practical and concise in discussing a subject matter that many other authors have chosen to cover in an academic manner. I have 2 other XML books that go into great detail about the difference between SGML and XML, the history of the XML specification, and how the XML standards commitee works... Exciting stuff! This book skips all that fluff and gives you what most programmers want - a nice intro to how to use XML covering basic usage. I got this book after going through the XML documentation at MSDN online. If you are new to XML, look over the MSDN online articles and examples and then pick up this book and you will be on your way.

A Practical, Real World Presentation

I've finished the first read of the book and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I did find two glaring omissions I will comment on at this time.1.) I enjoyed chapter 7 and the remarks concerning the DOM. The object model is vast and here it is reduced to the 100 or so pages of stuff I'll actually use with examples. All the other books I've read uses the standard filler docs re-worked only for format and not content (what better way to add an additional 300+ pages?).2.) Also missing is the section where the author dryly discusses the virtues of one Java based parser over that of another. This of course would be accompanied by TERRIBLY abstract IXMLDOM example code where the author demonstrates his mastery of the inane. I enjoyed the authors' treatment on this in chapter 4 with the real world examples I can relate to.In the past, I have spent hundreds of dollars on books and training material that has left me more confused than when I first started. This book presented the material in a clear and straight forward manner and I consider it to be the best 30 bucks I've spent this year. I will buy a 6-pack of this book and distribute them to my people. If they then can't understand the XML, I'll just get new people.

Finally, a book with content a programmer can use

This book is definitely my favorite book on XML (I own enough XML books to open an XML Bookstore). The first thing that impresed me was that the book had great content, including code examples that are immediately applicable to real-world websites. The second, and most refreshing, aspect of this book is that it is not full of "filler" like XML specifications and XML sytax definitions that you can find anywhere and just take up space in many books. Overall, it is just a book that reads very easily and contains content that you can learn and use immediately.

Developer's fresh breath

'XML Programming with VB and ASP' by Mark and Trace Wilson gets immediately to the cutting-edge-developer's need by providing examples and explanations in a very understandable format. This book finally brought the XML revolution into focus, and brought immediate closure to the cloud of details I've been trying to juggle from a dozen different "Partial sources".