[WEB4LIB] XML bible?

[Jim Harold]

Hello Thomas Hahn ....

I have always had the most respect for O'Reilly & Associates books.  The problem is that their book on XML is not scheduled for release until July.

Jim Harold
USAID/DEC

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from:  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xml/

Creating Documents with XML
The Extensible Markup Language for the Web
By Chris Maden
1st Edition July 1999 (est.)
1-56592-518-1, Order Number: 5181
250 pages (est.), $32.95 (est.)
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xml/

The arrival of support for XML -- the Extensible Markup Language -- in browsers and authoring tools has been preceded by a long period of intense hype. Major databases, authoring tools (including Microsoft's Office 2000), and browsers are committed to XML support. Many content creators and programmers for the Web and other media are left wondering, "What can XML and its associated standards really do for me?" 

Chris Maden, a member of the standardization committee for XSL (the Extensible Stylesheet Language) explains XML and its friends in terms understandable to lay people, with references to real-life projects and other simple examples. Creating Documents with XML shows the purpose of XML mark-up itself, the CSS and XSL styling languages, and the XLink and XPointer specifications for creating rich link structures. 

The basic advantages of XML over HTML are that XML lets you define tags that are meaningful for your documents or database output, and that it enforces an unambiguous structure that supports error-checking. XML supports enhanced styling and linking standards (allowing you, for instance to link simultaneously to the same document in multiple languages) and a range of new applications. 

If you are a writer producing XML documents, this book will let you understand and create files with the structure and format you need. If you are a designer, it will help you choose the parts of XML that will help your team and get you started on creating Document Type Descriptions. If you are a programmer, the book will explain the syntax and structures that you have to work with. It also discusses the stylesheets that will be needed to view documents in the next generation of browsers. 

>>> "Thomas H. Hahn" <thahn at vms2.macc.wisc.edu> 05/03/99 10:15AM >>>

Hi,

I am working on multilingual websites (mainly Chinese, Japanese and Korean, aka CJK) and need to move into a UniCode environment pretty soon in terms of coding and tagging. The way it looks, XML appears to be the way to go. Now, a search
at Amozon.com turned up 157 titles about XML. I have NO idea which of these titles really is the one (if there is THE one) work that everybody follows.

Are there any recommendations by webmasters already emersed in XML re which title may be a really useful one to have lying beside the keyboard? Is there any XML "bible"? I need something to take home or on trips for browsing and annotating.

Thank you very much!

Dr. Thomas H. Hahn
East Asian Bibliographer
Memorial Library
UW - Madison