XSLT Cookbook

Learning XML, Second Edition

XML in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Html General

Learning XSLT

Format: Paperback
Author: Michael Fitzgerald
ReleaseDate: 18 November, 2003
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:

A good introductory book on XSLT
Mr. Learning XSLT was a helpful introduction to XSLT and I really enjoyed my progress through the book. Fitzgerald doesn't spend too much time on lengthy explanations. Simple explanations are followed by illustrative examples that you should type and run yourself.

good and bad
It's poorly indexed, and Fitzgerald often uses XSLT vocabulary in examples long before he explains what they are. I found Learning XSLT confusing from a beginner's point of view. For example the "select" attribute first appears on page 105 in an example describing the lang() function, without any explanation of what it is or how it should be used. It's not listed at all in the index except in relation to the "for-each" and "sort" elements. He has a nice list of string functions but not much explanation of what kinds of contexts they can be used in, and few examples. He doesn't really explain how "match" and "select" are used together, or how processing works hierarchically by jumping between xsl snippets. Like a lot of O'Reilly books it presumes a pretty sophisticated programming vocabulary (like what does "normalize" mean anyway?).

Some sections are quite useful however, and the fact that there are lots of examples is very helpful.
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Dissapointing presentation. Needs a rewrite
The tone of the book is very taxing on the readers attention span. The information is presented very dryly.

I find that one of the key tenets of these O'Reilly books is that they are usually very readable, and can be read front to back almost like a novel. I didn't find I was able to do this with Learning XSLT.

Maybe it's the subject matter or maybe its the authors inability to hook the reader. Either way, it didn't work for me.