This book is a quick read, partly due to its bulleted format. Frequent topic headings and accompanying blurbs in the margin for each make it easy for even hurried readers to pick up the key concepts quickly. However, the author doesn't cut any corners in describing the basic nature of XML and its associated standards and tools. The first part of the book is devoted to this high-level tutorial and includes useful diagrams and code examples that nonprogrammers can easily understand.
The most instructive part of the book comes in the second half. Here, the author illustrates some of the ways XML can be useful in the real world and does a great job of demonstrating the wide-reaching applications of XML. Five example applications for enterprises and five more for vendors are presented in miniature case studies. Here the reader will see how XML can be used for workflow, data integration, distributed protocols, knowledge management, and more. --Stephen W. Plain
Topics covered: XML standards background, Document Type Definitions, schemas, XLink, XSL, XSLT, development tools, associated standard status, XML application examples.