Python
Python & XML
Format: Paperback
Author: Christopher A Jones
ReleaseDate: 15 December, 2001
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:
Great coverage with some typos 
The
chapter are well laid out and easy to read. This book really dvelves into the using XML with Python. There are some typos
but nothing that you can't fix. There are some problems using the current XSLT processer that ships with PyXml0. 7 but you can
still apply the concepts (I used MSXML's XSLT). The best chapter (last one (:-|) ties all the concepts explained into a Web Service like app. that really shows the real strength of XML.
Good Coverage of Python XML possibilities
I tried to use the package docs, but they were often hard to read, and didn't fill me in on the background stuff I needed to know. I really liked this book because I was able to quickly start using XML with Python. The examples in this book were easy to understand, and easy to see how to make practical applications from them. I didn't encounter any typos like the other reader did.
Terse, and too many typos! 
The preface purports that the book's audience need not "know anything
about XML. I'm not very far along in the book, but I don't like what I'm seeing." There is very little in the way of explaining XML, however.
The chapter on "Fundamentals" is O'Reilly at its most terse. If you already
understand XML very well, you might think this chapter an excellent
itemizing of the specification. Sadly, most people, I imagine, would be able
to retain little from this.
Regarding the code examples, the explanations hardly illuminate the API.
The code stands as is; and the commentary does only a somewhat decent job
of explaining the larger context. You could always check the documentation
given in the back of the book, but that's hardly as helpful as a good overview
and commentary. Moreover, and in some ways worse, I have found many typos -- and I am only
as far as the first two examples. These mistakes include missing import
statements, errant capitalization, bad indentation, double underscores ('__')
written as one long underscore. This is unacceptable. I can only hope it is just
this one chapter. I bought this book because of the topics, and because I figured Python would
be the easiest way to learn XML API's. I am only hoping that the book will
get better, and that I will be able to derive benefit from it. As it stands,
I'm skeptical that I will get my money's worth.
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