Sgml

PARSEME.1st: SGML for Software Developers

Format: Textbook Binding
Author: Sean McGrath
ReleaseDate: 10 July, 1997
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Rating:

Best practical intro to the details of SGML
The SGML Handbook is the Bible, but it's rather short on examples (ahem). As someone who makes a living dealing with SGML, I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone who has to get into the details of the language. On the other hand, among books for acquiring serious SGML understanding on one's own, Parseme 1st has been, for me, the most useful by a mile. I think this is because it can be read either straight through, as a textbook, or in bits and pieces, as a reference. It's extremely well-organized, and any time you want a precise explanation of CONREF or marked sections but don't want to get distracted from the business at hand, there it is.

On the minus side, the programming paradigms it presents predate some standards such as DOM and SAX that promise to dominate XML processing. But the ideas behind these are clearly present, DOM in the Python paradigm and SAX in the Perl. And don't worry that it's not an XML book: basic knowledge of XML _is_ SGML knowledge. If you read this book, even without the sections on programming, you'll be in a position to understand the strengths and limitations of XML very well.

For me, this is an indispensable book.