XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) 4th Edition

It's tricky to judge the quality of a book in a field with which you're unfamiliar. One technique I've used is using common sense to find various kinds of errors-- and a good sign of this book is that each time I thought I'd caught the author in a mistake, further study always proved me wrong. I eventually ended up reading this book practically cover to cover and soaking up as much as I could.This book has no fluff or cutesy humor. The writing is precise, to the point, and anticipated my questions. There is some repetition (for example, on the topic of namespaces), making the book in my mind very useful as a reference. The author's obvious familiarity with the standard itself and its various implementations reveals itself in the many clarifying annotations.Some of the examples are very elaborate and thorough and serve to clarify the complexities of the technology where needed-- for example, regarding the subtleties of the 'for' and 'number' family of instructions.If there are any deficiencies in the book at all, they are minor. One irritation is the author's prejudice towards Java (granted that XSLT and XPath themselves seem more comfortable in that domain); for example, calling C++ "procedural" or claiming that Java popularized IEEE 754 (neglecting phenomenal implementations such as SANE that predated Java by a decade). This didn't really distract from the value of the book, other than that an entire appendix is devoted to JAXP while there is not a single mention of libxslt2-- making me wonder for a while whether the technologies described in this book were applicable to the problem I was trying to solve (they were).There are mentions of efficiencies that can be obtained with "a good optimizer," but with only my personal suspicion that only the author's own implementation supports them I'd still have some work to do if I wanted to evaluate the differences between them.In using the book I did often find myself confused over which parts applied to the 2.0 versions of XSLT/XPath-- and while the book does define that specifically, a clearer typographical separation would have been helpful. This problem obviously will become less relevant as the later versions become more widely supported.On the topic of the technologies themselves, I've become even more convinced of the absurdity of any kind of executable XML. Also, the melding together of two intentionally separate languages (XSLT vs XPath) with different type systems and other complex relationships appears to have no obvious practical advantage. Finally, if the object of one-based counting was to make the technology more accessible, the actual effect to me was to make it that much less so.In a nutshell, I have no qualms whatsoever recommending this book to a wide audience. It's extremely thorough, well-written and organized, and authoritative.

You won't easily find a better book on XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0. The reason is very simple: Michael Kay is THE expert on the subject, he has been publishing xslt references for almost a decade now. Currently he is the editor of the XSLT 2.0 specification at W3C. He is also involved the XQuery and the XML Schema Working Groups, also at W3C. He has developed the Saxon XSLT processor. This book (like its predecessors were and its future versions will be) is the definitive reference on XSLT.The third edition was in two separate books, one on XSLT 2.0 (XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)) and one on XPath 2.0 (XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)). If you are serious about XSLT 2.0, you also need the information on XPath 2.0, as it is a sub language of XSLT 2.0. So you would need both books at hand. The current book contains all of the material available in the two predecessors, and more.I could have survived on the two books, but tired of taking them from my office to my home and vice versa, I ordered the new edition and I am enjoying it very much. After using the new edition for a week or so I have come upon quite a few improvements, for instance the chapter on regular expressions contains more information and is better structured. Examples have been updated and as have been the appendices covering the processors. There is a new appendix on the Altova processor.I should also mention the quality of the paper, the binding and the price, they are much better than the two previous books together.As a reference, the book is complete. It contains a clear description of all the elements of the standards and lots of (tested) examples. There is also much material about the design backgrounds of both standards (and of others like XML Schema and XQuery).The book is extremely well written and a joy to read.The book is aimed at developers and should not be used as a first introduction to XML transformation technology (unless you are an experienced programmer). If you need an introduction to XSLT (in its context) check out one of the other Wrox books like Beginning XML, 4th Edition (Programmer to Programmer) or Professional XML (Programmer to Programmer). One could also try Beginning XSLT 2.0: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional), it has good reviews. In any case if you are seriously interested (even as a newbie) don't buy anything from before 2004, it will not include the 2.0 functionalities. If you buy something published after 2004 check that they really updated the book and not only the title.Recently O'Reilly has issued an update of tidwell's XSLT, 2nd Edition. I could be worthwhile to consider this book also.

I've gotten a lot of good from this line of references, and this title is no exception. If you need to understand XPath or XSLT, I recommend this as the place to start.That said, if you get stuck in an XSLT project, I wish you all the good luck that you haven't had so far. I've programmed in a lot of different models: more than one instruction set microcode, a number of assemblers, Verilog and VHDL, Prolog, C, C++, Java, and I don't remember what-all. Of them all, XLST was my least favorite experience. I can't hold that against the book, though. It's a very good writeup of a very unfortunate topic.-- wiredweird

I'm getting further into xslt lately, and I'm due for another sweep through to shore up some shaky understandings.It may not be a great way to get into xslt/xpath, but once you are on your way this book really does the job. As others say, it doesn't build up slowly, but with this amount of information it really can't.Want to know exactly what an element/function does? This will tell you. Have you ever read books, even references, and had questions pop into your head, like 'yeah, but what if I pass in null?' or 'what would this be useful for?', 'why did they set it up that way?', etc. Of course you have, we all have. This book, more than any other, actually answers those questions as they are popping into your head.This is not just a list of function definitions, nor a cut and paste of the standard. It really helps you understand what is going on in all ways.I have never regretted buying this book, even with Google handy.

This is the definitive book about XSLT and XPath.I highly recommend this book for everyone who has to deal with XML, XSLT and XPath.

Il you want a reference, you've got a reference. A very good and in-deep reference that explains concepts behind the language. As written on the back cover, if you need a tutorial buy something else.

This book has reminded me of the importance of well-written books about computer programming, even with today's vast quantity of high quality technical info on the web. Michael Kay puts XSLT firmly into context, which is particularly important for a programming language that is unlike most. Experienced programmers should not be put off by the description "Programmer's Reference" - there's lots more than reference material here. Inexperienced programmers should probably look elsewhere if they are looking for a tutorial on XSLT.

Éste libro ha sido escrito y detalladamente planeado. Su estructura se puede visualizar y persequir durante toda la lectura. Al final se encuentra uno en un nivel en el cual no solo se sabe como usar XSLT, sino aún más, se ha aprendido también el Por qué...Siempre y cuando traigas tiempe e interes de dejarte llevar por la estrucutra y la modalidad del libro, entonces tendrás éxito. D elo contrario, si lo usas como un diccionario, no llegaras a enriquecerte de éste conocimiento.Ya me alegro por la version 3.0 en la misma calidad textual....

Michael Kayの本は初版のXSLT Programmer's Referenceからずっと買っている．しかしXSLT1.0からXSLT2.0へ移行するのはスタイルシートプログラマにとって相当垣根が高いと思う．何故ならば、MicrosoftがXSLT2.0をインプリメントしないこともあって、SaxonやAltova以外に有力なXSLTプロセッサが存在しない現実がある．そしてこのためにXSLT2.0を解説した和書がW3Cの勧告を翻訳したもの以外出ていないからである．このため、XSLT2.0を勉強したくとも洋書にならざるを得ない．世の中にXSLT2.0を名乗ったコードでもXSLT2.0の機能を十分に使いこなしているものはそう見当たらない．そのような中で、この本は、XSLT2.0に挑戦する人の欠かせないバイブルだ．XSLT2.0を使いこなすには、XSLT2.0、XPath2.0、XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators と見なければならない仕様がいっぱいある．この本はコンパクトにこれらをまとめてくれている．私はわからなくなったときに何度この本を読み返したか数えきれない．W3CはすでにXSLT3.0に向かって歩みをすすめているが、この本の価値は決して色あせることはないと思う．