Xml
C++ XML
Format: Paperback
Author: Fabio Arciniegas
ReleaseDate: 03 August, 2001
Publisher: Sams
Rating:
A good introduction...
I knew the basics, but was not really aware of how it could be integrated with C++. As many C++ programmer, I have heard of XML and its supposed wonders, yet, I always thought it was just another web-specific kind of technology. This book was exactly what I was looking for. It just covers every possible way of integrating XML into C++ applications. This book is a wonderful survey of all possible solutions. The fact that this book covers every possible technology is of course very appreciated, but its coverage of every technology is very brief and may only serve as an introduction. Worse, the very comparison between every technology and the "when to use what?" section is of a mitigated quality. The author just doesn't explain well his point. The book looks more like a compilation of chapters than a unique book with a clear vision. After reading this book, I fell like I know more how to integrate XML into C++ and dispose of some information on which technology use, but definitively need to buy another book to cover the chosen technology. Overall, this book is a very good introduction to the integration of XML into C++ apps, but a better "guidance / technology comparison" would be appreciated.
The only one on the subject, but far from being perfect 
This
is mostly due to the lack of an accepted and standardized API. Although XML is a buzzword du jour, its acceptance in the C++ world
is surprisingly slow, especially in non-Microsoft environments. The
standardization process is painfully slow and even though there are
a number of publicly available parsers with C++ bindings, they vary in
their approach to XML processing as well as in the minute details that
make them work with some C++ compilers but not with the others. In such an environment, a book devoted specifically to processing XML
using C++ is mostly welcome. Read below and decide for yourself. The good: - the book covers all major XML processing technologies
available for C++ programmers. It provides examples and explains the
difference in various approaches. - It will not bore you with XML basic description, excessive quoting
of XML standards, or useless hype (99. 9% of XML books out there are
plagued with all of the above). The bad: - Even though all of the technologies are compared, the comparison is
crammed in the back of the book, after the chapters describing all
of these technologies in great detail. This sounds like a poor
choice, because these technologies are very different from each
other and different tasks require different approaches. A good
overview and comparison of all of those in the beginning would be
much welcome. It would give readers an idea of what technology to
choose. - Most of the large examples are Windows-oriented. - Source code for the examples is only available on an attached CD.
It is not available on-line, which is a shame - I though we've
already passed the stage of "proprietary examples. " Apart from other
obvious advantages, having examples on-line would facilitate
contribution of patches and improvements from the readers. - Speaking of the examples on the CD, they are presented in the worst
manner I've ever seen. The examples I've played so far are bundled
with XML parser distribution (each of them!), have plenty of
temporary files around (like editor backups, or files that Visual
C++ produces). Even those examples that are supposed to work in both
UNIX and Windows come with no Makefiles, the source code looks and
feels rather immature (I though, one learns to NOT supply an
identifier to #endif directive during the 1st year of C/C++
education). All in all, each example I've seen so far feels like a
quick hack, hastily cooked up and released without a mere attempt to
make it look presentable. This is really bad, since, given the
scarcity of books on the subject, there will be plenty of people
fighting with the source code from the book. The bottom-line: this books falls way short of my "golden standard"
(UNIX books by W. Richard Stevens). Nevertheless, it seems to be the
only book on the subject and it does cover all major technologies. If
you need to work with XML in C++ - buy this book. Once a revised
edition is out (or a better book appears), switch to it.
There are dozens of books on XML and Java and one for C++? 
It will get out of date pretty quick as most tech books of this kind do but as a reference it does nicely. Well I know Java and XML well, I needed a good reference book on "best practices" on using XML with C++, this book is really the only game in town and is quite useful as it covers all the bases.
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