Looking for a good XML book for a beginner. 2

[jungmc]

My job has a client that is going from an Excel spreadsheet means of sharing information to using XML. I'd like to learn more about XML, but am very new to programming. What book would you guys recommend as a good way to learn the basics of XML, and are there some pre-requisite books I should consider as well, ie a book on HTML.

Thank you in advance!

-greg

 

[k5tm]

Greg

"Using XML" is a rather broad term.

XML is not programming, but rather a means of representing data. If you need some information specific to your client's process, then we need to know more about the process to be informative.

There are a couple of generally decent online resources to allow you to learn more about XML. The Wikipedia XML article is informative, and has some helpful links. W3Schools has a tutorial on XML, and addition tutorials on XML related technologies. The O'Reilly XML pages are also informative, albeit with a commercial flavor.

I doubt HTML is any prerequisite, despite the fact that most XML practitioners knew HTML (in some sense of the word 'knew') before using XML. You will see comparisons between HTML and XML as you go through the tutorial material.

I hope this helps. If nothing else, perhaps these online resources will allow you to focus your questions on the specifics of your client's situation.

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com

 

[Stretchwickster]

As Tom has pointed out, there is a wealth of information about XML online and you can probably make do with that. However, if you did want an offline resource, XML for the World Wide Web by Elizabeth Castro is a book I used when starting out with XML and found to be pretty useful.

Clive

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
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To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096

 

[Stretchwickster]

Also, I forgot to mention that in the FAQs section of this forum there's an FAQ specifically targeted at Resources for those who want to learn XML

Clive

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096

 

[jungmc]

Thank you gentleman. I apologize for the vagueness of my question, but this is so new to me, I don't even know how to phrase my question properly! The links to the free online tutorials and the FAQ (oops, I should have looked there, sorry.) will be VERY useful, thank you for the suggestions. I'll do these, and then come back if I have more questions. Thank you again!

-greg