With a no-nonsense, step-by-step approach, Tim Sweeney well neigh guides would-be independent labels and independent-minded artists through the whole process of starting your organization and promoting your records. The book is so practical and concise it's difficult to imagine a better first purchase for a reference book. Tim Sweeney's rock-solid advice and methodical approach takes much of the bewilderment out of starting a record label.

A little thin for...(price), only if you value the book by the amount of paper between the covers. There is more relevant information per page in Tim Sweeneys guide than in a collection of books twice the size. If you are at all unsure about how to go about that first release this book is essential. It is clear, concise, and straight to the point, with an easy to follow a-b guide of how to go about it. Yes it may all be a little old hat for today considering there is no mention of the internet, MP3's, multi media CD's etc or any of the other developments within the industry since 96, but if you are interested in an independent record release through the more traditional routes, pressing plant to distibutor to retailer, radio, gigs etc this book is perfect for you. I might add this book is more concerned with the giging band type scenario and doesn't really address the dance or electronic music scene or the numerous new marketing strategies open to the electronic musician, however this book is a really good place to begin to understand the process of, as it says on the cover, releasing an independent record.

I looked at the other reviews before buying this book. I even talked to other musicians I knew to see if they knew about it. While some of the reviews are negative, all the musicians I knew who read the book had gotten something out of it.

Just by following the information in the book, I decided to start my own indie label at the beginning of this year. I am now selling almost 1,000 CDs at shows and in stores becuase of the info in the book. I used college radio promotion companies before and got little sales even though my music charted. Now I know why.

I thought $24.95 was high priced but after Sweeney answered the phone number in the book and answered my questions plus the book's free consulting review, it is a good investment at $24.95. I even gave copies to other musicians who haven't read it.

This book outlines the history of coffee with a focus on the industry as a whole. It's main focus is on the late 19th century to the present. I think it provides an excellent overview and history of the business. I found it very readable and quite interesting. It is not dry like you would expect a business history book to be. Pendergrast does a good job of sprinkling in tidbits of facts throughout the book without bogging down. He also illuminates some of the drama behind the early days of small roasters in America growing and consolidating. This book is not for people who want to learn how to make coffee (it does have a few pages in an appendix on this). It is purely about the history of the business with a focus on events during the 20th century. I disagree with some comments made about this book. This book does reveal how coffee has transformed several Latin American and African countries even to this day. It does not spend entire chapters on specific countries but rather surveys several countries and the impact the industry has had. I thought Pendegrast did a fairly good job at balancing the different perspectives of retailers, roasters, importers, and growers. He also sheds some light onto the origins of specialty coffee and the explosion of retailers such as Starbucks. Some have argued this book is leftist, others argue it does not adequately cover the exploitation of Latin America and Africa by the industry. I think the author does a fairly good job of portraying both views, perhaps with a bit of leaning left. Pendergrast reveals fascinating personalities such as C.W. Post the inventor of Postum and many other health cereals still produced today or Howard Schultz - without whom Starbucks would never have been the phenomenon it is, but rather a regional roaster and retailer at best.
I do agree with one reader's review - this is not a coffee table book. It is a history book - a history of the commodity we know as the coffee bean. Since it is such a book - expect it to read like a history book, a good, readable history book. It is not riveting, rather it is interesting.

It's not everyday you find a five hundred page book on the history of coffee. But then again, most coffee fans take their jobs quite seriously. Author Mark Pendergast has chronicled ups and downs of this remarkable commodity on an unprecedented scale. He takes us from the discovery of the bean in the hills of Ethiopia all the way to the despicable excesses of Starbucks. The first few chapters of this book take us on a jaunty trip through coffee's early history, including the ruthless and colorful European traders who were responsible for introducing the Western world to the bizarre beverage. Pendergast, a businessman by education, then settles into a wonderfully readable economic history. The structure of the material centers on the companies and international agreements that make up the international coffee system. But unlike so many commercially-oriented histories, Uncommon Grounds is eminently readable and captivating. The characters in the saga are fascinating: from American industrialists to Latin American peasants to African warlords to European consumers, there are people involved in this story, not just money. If you have a yen for coffee, grab an espresso and read this book. You won't find weighty theories on how coffee forms the basis of all human history, rather a fun, a caffeine-inspired trip through modernity with java-tinted glasses. -- HistoryHouse.com

I first heard about this book in a review on the Arts&Letters Daily website and couldn't agree more that this is a fabulous book. Mark Pendergast presents everything you never knew about coffee but didn't know existed, in an interesting, well woven story, from its history to present day business aspects to a consumers primer about this most stimulating of drinks. Others have reviewed this book as "liberal", but it simply presents the reality of this commodity. This book will educate and broaden you in many ways among which, the desire to find your favorite coffee, I've consequently graduated from staled in the can coffee to 8 o'clock-whole bean. The only drawback is for those who are not as business oriented the numbers by 3/4 of the way into the book can get a little tiring, but not too bad. Thank you Mark for writing this book!

As a longtime fan of Piers Anthony, I wasn't overly impressed with this book, or the remainder of the series (although I haven't read it all yet, and I do intend to finish it). I didn't feel drawn into the characters, and the story itself didn't enthrall me. However, this may be mainly because I am not the target audience for this series; judging by other reader reviews I have read, adolescent females feel a very strong bond to the lead character, and the book seems to touch thier emotions on a very personal level. I feel this is one of Anthony's strengths, the ability to write very specifically to his audience, and reach them completely, even if this lowers the appeal for others. If you are not an adolescent female, or have not been one, this may not be the book for you. However, it may provide some insight into what motivates and interests today's female youth.

Virtual Mode is one of those novels that really blow my head away. Colene is one of the most realistic characters that I have ever encountered in my life. Her pain and suffering are something that I can relate very well. For those that think that the things that happen to her doesn't happen in real life, well I have bad news for you, they do happen too often for my taste. Rape, depression, suicide, dyfuntional families, etc... are part of the reality of many people right now. Horrible to hear but truth, but what makes Virtual and its main character so humane and wonderful is her spirit to fight in adversity, even though she still is depressed and want to die.

Also the world of the Virtual Mode is amazing!! Piers really create a world full of multitude of realities.

I can't wait for DoOon Mode, the last novel, to know what will happen to Colene and Darius!! I really want them happy!!

I think this is the best series that Piers has written. And it is not a surprise considering that most of the inspiration of Colene come from real life suicidal teenage girls, asking him for help.

So if you haven't started reading this series, do so!! You will never regretted it.

I have read all of Piers Anthony's Xanth sieries and I liked them. So when my friend recomended my reading Anthony's Mode sieries, I was willing to give it a try. I'm glad I took her advice because I absolutely LOVED it.

The Main character, Colene, was very life like. She wasn't TO perfact. She had flaws. The hero, Darius, was somewhat boring. He didn't really have any flaws. Other than being to stupid to try to get Colene to go with him in the first place. He could have been slightly better. The secondary characters, Seqiro and Prothos, were very well written. I think that Anthony's portrayel of Prothos' memory of the future was very good. I think Anthony's portrayel of Seqiro was also very good. He made Seqiro have some human qualities, but kept some of his horse qualities.

I think this book was well written. It had only a few bad places and tose were fixed in his next mode books. I can't WAIT for Anthony's Next book in the Mode series, DoOon Mode. I expect it to be just as good as all his other books.

I thought Mr. Clarkson did a good job explaining how to use Flash 5 to create cartoons, as well as some general tips on using Flash (such as using nested symbols and shared libraries). The general animation tips are very helpful, too, such as how to create storyboards, recording sound, and simulating camera movement.

However, the CD has some files missing - the Rat and Penguin Xmas movie, the storyboard pictures, and the Stickman tutorial file, which are needed to do some of the tutorials.

Also, I wish there were more info about how to do transitions, such as how to do a fade out.

I have to agree that some of the included movies were offensive.

Still, I think for somebody wanting to do animated cartoons with Flash, this book is a better choice than Flash Cartoons and Games FX, since this focuses totally on cartooning, rather than being split up between cartoons and games (I thought there was too much emphasis on games in the other book).

This book covers cartoons in Flash from thought to finish. If you're looking for a bunch of action scripts, then you've come to the wrong place. This is great for any aspiring cartoonist ready to use Flash! It covers storyboards, sound, symbols, basics of animation and more. Mr. Clarkson breaks down his work to give you an idea on where you can take yours. The book is also on the CD included in pdf, examples from chapters and some wonderful Flash Toons. [....]
PLUS IT HAS PSYCHIC PIGS!!!

This book is great if you are familiar with the flash interface and can do basic things in it. For learning to write and animate cartoons in Flash it's a must. I think Mark covered just about everything you need to know for cartooning in this book and alot more. I've read just about every tutorial on Flash 5 on the web. I've been designing a website and was having trouble with "movie clips" and "tell target" (after all the tutorials) until I read this book. If you're new to flash >>> get it! Even if you aren't real interested in cartooning there is alot of good information for beginners here. I'll use it as a reference book for years to come. Thanks again Mark... you da' man!

There's no question that Mari Winsor is an expert on Pilates. The problem is that her book doesn't explain enough of the nitty gritty details of Pilates to make it a clear guide for someone who knows nothing about it. And the fact that she runs a thriving business teaching Hollywood types is not as important to me as her ability to teach the average person with no Pilates experience from the pages of a book.

I bought "The Pilates Powerhouse" because I was curious about Pilates, and I happened to find it on sale for...at a discount bookstore. I read all the enthusiastically written preliminary chapters, which really whetted my appetite. But when I got into the exercises themselves I got frustrated. At first glance, it appears that Winsor explains each exercise in detail. But when you get down on the floor and try to follow the directions, questions arise. She needs more illustrative photos. She needs to say more than "repeat six times". Repeat from what point? From the prep or from the action phase? Winsor stresses that the exercises must be done precisely, but her directions are rather imprecise. And the powerhouse, which she points to as the most important element of Pilates, is explained in general terms, but exactly what you're supposed to do with it during an exercise is not.

She claims the Pilates routine will take less than an hour out of your day, but lists three categories of exercises (beginning, intermediate, advanced), suggesting that eventually, you'll be doing all the exercises in all three categories (All 50 exercises? In an hour??!! I think not!) Also, she doesn't explain how fast the exercises should be done. Is it at the speed of hatha yoga? Or calisthenics? Or somewhere in between?

Despite the shortcomings of the book, I still want to learn Pilates, and I will persevere. Ms. Winsor and Mr. Laska, if you're reading this, and you decide to come out with another edition of your book, please take the above constructive criticism into consideration.

This book is a great home guide...but I recommend taking some classes to learn the correct form. I've been taking classes in conjunction with doing the book workout. Mari gives good descriptions of exactly how to do each movement, but sometimes it's a little difficult to understand EXACTLY what you should be doing from a book...this is where some classes can help. One thing about the book that's BETTER than the classes is that Mari divides the positions in to beginner, intermediate, and advanced....which sometimes is not explained in a class. I know that pilates class are expensive and the book is cheap....but you can really get a whole lot more out of the book by taking a few classes to learn proper form & understand how the exercises flow together and THEN continue at home for your workout (and money savings).

Having gone for one Pilates class, I understand the basics of the neutral spine and breathing. This book does not teach you in detail how to breath laterally. Hence it is not suitable for a first-timer with no previous experience at all.

This book emphasises on the various movements that can form a routine. Readers with some Pilates experience should be able to follow.

There are chapters on injuries and prevention, with simple neck stretching exercises other than Pilates movements.

I feel that this book gives the reader lots of encouragement. It tells you the numerous benefits of Pilates. I tried a routine last night, and woke up feeling light and comfortable. Can't wait to carry on with the workout tonight.

If only this book were spiral-bound and able to stand open on its own. If a detailed chapter on breathing and finding the neutral spine were added, this book deserves a 5/5.

This is a great book to keep as a reference. It covers all of J2EE, and has some interesting ideas on application design. However, if you already have a lot of Wrox "professional" titles, such as "Professional JSP" or "Professional XML", stay away. This book just repeats excerpts from those, and is more confusing because it doesn't contain all the information. For example, the section on XML namespaces was a hodgepodge editing job on the section from the XML book, and confused me even though I already had a basic understanding of the topic.

But, its worth a look if you don't have any of the other contained content.

This is NOT a book for beginners who wish to learn JSP/servlets and EJBs and the techniques of J2EE. On the other hand, if you already have some knowledge with these techniques, the book may help to improve your background of J2EE and its components.

1.The strong points of the book are:

- the book does a wonderful job in explaining different key points of J2EE techniques especially at the beginning of each chapter; although the discussion sometimes becomes pretty vague and less clear at the end.

- the book's code examples use j2sdkee1.2.1, orion and jboss which are available for you free with unlimited time.

- the book looks quite impressive, 1600 plus pp. hardcovered.

2.The weak points of the book:

- all the code examples are fairly easy. In fact, too easy to do much help to the readers who need a better workout to pay attention to some key points of the techniques.

- Since only half of the book is devoted to really J2ee techniques, people who already experienced with jsp/servlet may find the other half of the book unecessary.

In conclusion, you may want to check this book out if you alread know jsp/servlet and j2ee( through the Sun's tutorials and examples and wish to have a better understand of this popular but pretty complex technique.

As lots of wrox book, this book does provide some interesting information. UML diagrams are used for better explanation, design issues for JSP, using XML with JSP, how interface object, control object and entity object fit EJBs, JMS, Corba, Unit test, are all well explained.

However, as the non J2EE edition, the code still contains errors: for all the Primary key classes in examples of EJB, hashCode and equals are not defined, you have to add them yourself. There are errors for package names, for the example, in Chapter 20, Order and Product classes are defined in book.order and book.product classes, and other classes imported them from factory.order and factory.product classes. You have to change "book" to "factory" class by class manually!

They used jBoss and orion server to implement EJB examples, I am not against these two servers, but I think it may be better to test the examples with Weblogic as well, since it is the most popular application server, they did not. And they never mentionned Weblogic in the book, not even in the appendix.

In split of all these errors, there is no serious error, this is a good and interesting book.

Taken one way, Beyond the Pale is an average fantasy. It's got all the hallmarks of your modern-day "epic". It runs to about 600 pages, it's the first of what will probably be a mega-volume series, and it introduces a host of characters that often, as yet, have little or no impact.

Why buy it? Well, the story features a lot of action and moves along quite swiftly. You'll not be bored reading it. As long as you don't set your sights too high - this is not literature, nor even a well thought-out story - you might well like it.

Taken another way, Beyond the Pale is exceptional. It is, simply put, the most derivative book written since Terry Brooks's Sword of Shannara. Anthony goes even further than Brooks: whereas Brooks copied blatantly from one source (Tolkien), Beyond the Pale is a veritable hotchpotch of derivations. For example, one of Anthony's protagonists (Travis) is simply a pale rendering of Donaldson's Thomas Covenant. Another character (Melia) talks exactly like David Edding's Polgara. At one point in the story, Anthony has a third character (the bard Falken) deliver a speech to a council of rulers which reads like a poor summation of Tolkien's Battle of the Pelennor Fields. At this junction, Anthony actually steals entire sentences from Tolkien (not to mention ideas). It's really quite remarkable.

I remember that, when Terry Brooks first came along, there were those who delighted in pointing out just how unoriginal he was. Anthony should send such people into a fervor. In this sense, he's really much better than Brooks...

I suspose that the bottom line is that Beyond the Pale is fun to read, whichever way you take it...

Well I finished and I'm writing this as a follow-up to the initial review that I had written after reading the first 79 pages. I still think it is pretty derivitave but after awhile you do get sucked into the plot. The initial similarities of the female heroine, Grace, to characters in both Stephen R. Donaldson's and Anne Rice's works faded into the background once Grace leaves the world of the Denver ER and enters Eldh. However, after several chapters another influence became glaringly apparent; Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series which also features a sometimes confusing array of characters and POV. My biggest complaint with this novel is its sketchiness. I also have a few bones to pick.

When Grace and Travis ride off on a spying expedition Grace, who has never ridden or horse, manages to mount a STALLION, no less, with only a 'small degree of difficulty'. She manages this dubious feat while wearing a heavy woolen gown. Anyone who has ever ridden knows that mounting a horse with ease takes practice. Especially in a non-Western saddle. If the stirrups are in proper riding position they are quite high. You mount facing the back of the horse so you have to place your foot into a stirrup which can easily be at your mid-chest level and swing yourself forward and around into the saddle. Most people need a boost or a stool the first few times and even then it isn't easy. Anthony wants us to believe that Grace, by sheer power of a noble demeanor, is able to control not just any horse, a STALLION! There is a reason geldings exist. It is because a stallion can be a very willful and difficult to control animal except under the most skillful and competent hands.
When I was 13 I spent a summer working at a stable where the owner kept a stallion that was used only for stud services. The other horses in the stable were either geldings and mares this included the two race horses. The stallions stall was completely enclosed for the safety of the nearby horses and any passers-by. He was let out into a pasteure of his own, away from the other horses. I was not allowed to go anywhere near him, nor did I have any desire too. If Grace has some kind of magical power over animals Anthony should have shown that earlier. Instead he waits for this scene to make a passing comment that Grace has always had more of a rapport with animals than people. Than why didn't she become a vet? Why doesn't she have a cat or a dog in her apartment? There is absolutely no evidence given that Grace has even an ounce of feeling for animals until this scene. It's just another example of the laziness of the writing. Anthony seems to have forgotten the golden rule, "A writer shows, not tells." At times he is like child playing Cops and Robbers, making things up as he goes along. Remember when you were a kid and said stuff like, "You didn't kill me just then 'cuz I was wearing a bullet-proof vest." ? It is really bad when I writer resorts to that type of plot-convenience.

I could almost excpet the idea of Travis, whose last riding experience had been a pony ride, doing all the riding he did with no mention of difficulty except a little soreness. He was riding a gentle and easygoing gelding who could easily have been just following the Falken and Melia's horses. Of course that reasoning doesn't hold up to to scrutiny when you consider that they spent a good deal of time trotting and galloping. Riding isn't just a matter of sitting in the saddle and holding on. You have to maintain a good seat or else you will be flopping around in the saddle like a sack of potatoes. You can't just saw on the reins in the direction you want to the horse to go. Most of the guidance is done with the knees and the reins should only be given the most gentle twitch with your fingers. I realize this is nitpicking but most fantasy writers seem to do at least some research about horses if riding is going to be a factor in the story. If he didn't want to spend much time in showing Travis learning to ride, he could have easily made Travis an experienced rider. Since Grace was raised in an orphanage and then went onto college and medical school it would be less plausible that she had ever had time to learn to ride but surely Travis could have spent some time pleasure riding considering he had been living in a Western town for the past seven years. I know this is nitpicking but it is details like this that can make the difference between a skillfuly written novel and one written by a talented amateur. From my understanding, Anthony is not an amateur so this type of laziness is inexusable.

One of the other peeves I had with the novel was the total lameness of the names and the magic. "Beltan" sounds like a cheesy 50's robot. For that matter, so does "Kron", the rune for fire which features early on in the novel. Without going into detail about the magic, let's just say, neither did Anthony. It was as if he couldn't be bothered spending the time to create a believable system of magic and spells.

The character of Grace has an annoying tendency toward inner histrionics at the least little social foible. I find very little about her I like. Anthony needs to work on crafting a more believable female character. He gives us no real evidence of Grace's 'noble' character. He just shows the other characters falling all over themselves in awe of her without much more proof other than physical beauty. And yet, about a third of the way through, there is a scene in which an outwardly beautiful character does something cruel and unkind and Grace meditates on the incongruency of this.

He is a little more adept with the male characters in this novel. Or at least he seems to like them more. Travis is a far less annoying character, albeit a bit whiney. There could have been more written about his friendship with Beltan. Beltan is obviously attracted to him but we aren't given very many clues why. There aren't really enough scenes that flesh out this friendship but it's pretty obvious to any savvy reader where it's leading.

My final complaint is with the big 'mysteries' of Travis' and Grace's backgrounds. Anyone with a brain can figure out, almost from the beginning, the secrets that Anthony waits until the last few chapters to reveal in very awkward inner dialogue sequences. I'm not giving anything away when I mention that dyslexia is far more complex than just having a tendency to reverse letters and numbers.

All that being said, there is some real entertainment to be found in the pages of this book. It is surprisingly funny at times. There are some interesting sattelite characters. I just wish Anthony had spent more time fleshing out his ideas. The book at times reads more like an outline or first draft.

I'm incredibly fond of this book and fully intend to get the 2nd one. Where I utterly detested Brook's Sword of Shannara (he couldn't write, I tell you!) I find this book well written and the storyflow engaging, so much so that I can actually ignore the less than original plotline. The only problem I had with his writing style is that I found it rather difficult to identify the characters. Besides the two main characters, whenever a character reappeared after a certain period of absence in the book I had to flip back to the front just to figure out who it was.

It's also true that some parts are terribly derivative. Melia is a Polgara clone, and that part about seals weakening just screams Robert Jordan at you. We've all seen this magic system somewhere before and the "off to save the world" theme is so prevalent it isn't even amusing anymore.

For me, the bottom line is that Mr. Anthony can tell a good story. His descriptions of castle life imparted a certain feeling of reality to that episode, the characters are fleshed out well enough to make them believable. The book isn't profound or soul-grabbing, it'll never make you ponder the cosmos or the meaning of life, but it really reads well.

After reading Mark Kurlansky's informative, yet disjointed book, I know more about salt than I ever would have known or might have cared to. While it's billed as a "history" of salt this book is really more like an encyclopedia. Digesting the facts about salt's ride through history, its effect on empires, its uses (and the best part....some great recipes!) takes some doing, but I give the author credit for his breadth of knowledge on the subject.

The problem with Mr. Kurlansky's book is his writing style. The narrative is confusing as he jumps from century to century, east to west, north to south without a clue as to where he's headed next. He's the "Where's Waldo" of the information trade. Good histories make sensible unions with their subjects, but "Salt, A World History" becomes a dot-to-dot puzzle without the lines that are needed to connect. Unfortunately, that often means putting this book down. I'm glad I read it and glad I finished it
but if the author is going to write a sequel on pepper I hope he can redefine his presentation.

Yes, Kurlansky is worth his salt as a writer, researcher and uncoverer of unknown facts about odd subjects. As he did with his previous non fiction books he has woven strands of information into an interesting tapestry, equal parts - enthralling history lesson and cultural voyage. The only problem is - at 450 pages and 26 chapters, with numerous visits to different cultures, countries, eras and rulers in an attempt to cover as many of the 14,000 uses that salt is known for - finishing SALT: A WORLD HISTORY leaves you in a brine of facts, but also very thirsty for a unifying theme or story and a more memorable read.

Certainly my knowledge of historical trivia is now seasoned with tidbits such as: the Anglo-Saxon word for saltworks being 'wich' means that places such as Norwich, Greenwich, etc, in England were once ancient salt mines; Ghandi's independence movement in India began with his defying the British salt laws, and the French levied taxes on salt until as recently as 1946.

A common theme in Kurlansky's books is that food is seen as a topic of historical interest. Here we learn about the role salt played in preserving cod, whale, ham, herring, caviar, pastrami, salami and sausage, and as it was with COD and THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD this book is sprinkled throughout with recipes.

Salt is certainly an interesting subject; cultural history buffs will love this book and Kurlansky still has a humorous, easy, and very readable writing style; it's just that he probably could have salted away some of the facts without us missing much and he should have developed a flowing theme rather than one that was so saltatory.

SALT follows in the tradition of COD and THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD in bringing the history of peoples and things to life. Kurlansky takes SALT, the commodity that has defined civilizations, travels, and commerce for centuries as his cornerstone, and his writing flows from there. Fascinating, insightful, and a pleasure to read.
It's a big book, a big idea, and a great read that spans centuries of fascinating history, peoples, and events. Bravo!

OMG! How concieted can you get? This book does nothing but glorify it's subject and belittle her competitors. To add, the writing in this book is minimal. It's more of a picture book for the elementary school student since it has little literary value. If you want a book on figure skating, buy Edge of Glory or Frozen Assets instead.

This book is 145 pages long, and nearly every single one of those pages is a picture. Some of the pictures have words written on them, but this is a picture book. Don't get me wrong though, these pictures do a good job of showing Tara's preparation for the 1998 games, and her experiences while she was there. You get a good look inside her training, and her mind set entering the games.

So, if you want to see a LOT of pictures of tara, and get a somewhat limited idea of her life, buy this book, but if you're looking for an autobiography...this isn't one.

I think this is a great book! They could of put a little more writing in. But then again it was great the way it is! Tara is a wonderful skater and it is cool to see pictures of her on her way to reaching her goal! I love this book!

It is easy to tell that this book was written by 12 different authors. The quality and writing style of each chapter varies widely. I thought the chapters on XPath, XSLT, DOM, SAX2, and SOAP were well written, but I was disappointed by some of the others.

The chapter on XML Schemas was the worst, in my opinion. This is a very important subject, but it is given the same amount of space as much less important topics. As a result, the author of this chapter tries to cover too much in too little space and ends up being quite confusing. Examples are thrown out followed by only partial explanations, and the author forgets to do some basic things like showing a sample XML document to match the sample XML Schemas in the examples. If you need to understand XML Schemas, skip this chapter and go directly to "Professional XML Schemas," which is very well written book on the subject.

This book is also too large and attempts to cover too many obscure topics. For example, it wastes a chapter on "XML Schema Alternatives" when it is clear that XML Schema is the approach that will be used by almost everyone going forward.

Finally, my standard complaint about all WROX books is that the font they use is too small! I feel like I'm reading a telephone book. Give the readers a break by taking out some of the less important chapters and increasing the font size.

I found this book very boring and tedious reading. The style of the book seems to vary as much as the number of authors. The concepts don't smoothly flow together. The book is a hodgepodge of technical information presented in patches by a huge bunch of authors. Obviously this book was an attempt to bring to market a book on XML as quickly as possible. The book doesn't provide enough examples or applications although it does present many examples on syntax. This may be a good reference book, but to really learn how to use XML I'm searching for another book.

The XML declarative language, with its adaptability and expressive power, is continuing to become the language of choice for reporting and classifying information. XML is a formal grammar that captures the syntactic features of a document type definition, and its properties, syntax, and applications are discussed effectively in this book. It covers XML as formalized by the W3C and the authors show how to use XML in Web-based and database applications. Readers who have developed applications in HTML will probably view XML as somewhat more abstract, since the visual representation of the content of a document is not emphasized in XML. Readers are expected to have a background in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and ASP in order to read the book. Although XML can be learned by reading the W3C specifications, these documents are frequently difficult reading, and this book makes the learning of XML much easier than reading these specifications. They include the W3C specifications for XML 1.0 in an appendix to the book for the interested reader. The book is a little dated, since the W3C has been updating XML specs since the time of publication (especially with regard to schemas), but there is a 2nd edition coming out soon.

In Chapter 1, XML is introduced as a mark-up language and its inherent extensibility emphasized. This is followed by a detailed treatment of XML syntax in the next chapter, with emphasis placed on the hierarchical nature of XML. The authors do include a discussion of Processing Instructions (PIs) for users who want to use XML in this fashion.

Document Type Definitions (DTD) are the subject of Chapter 3, where the authors communicate effectively how DTDs formal grammar is used to specify the structure and permissible values of XML documents. The formal DTD structure is discussed, and the principles behind writing DTDs are effectively outlined. They also discuss the problems with using DTDs.

Data modeling with XML is discussed in the next chapter, with information modeling via static and dynamic models treated in detail, and the authors carefully distinguish these two approaches. The actual designing of XML documents is given a nice overview as well as the role of schemas in XML. This is followed in Chapter 6 by a discussion of the (tree-based) Document Object Model, which overviews how XML documents can be accessed by various programs. Some helpful examples are given on how the DOM can be used to create an XML document programmatically. An alternative way of processing an XML document is discussed in the next chapter on the (event-based) SAX interface. The authors outline in detail the benefits of using SAX rather than DOM. In Appendix B the reader will find the Internet Explorer 5.0 XML DOM 1.0 W3C specifications. In addition, in Appendix C, the specification for the SAX 1.0 interface is given.

The shortcomings of DTD are addressed in terms of XML Schemas and namespaces in chapter 7. Since this book was published, XML Schemas have reached W3C recommendation status as of Nov 2000. The authors give a good overview of namespaces and schemas, with helpful examples. This is followed in chapter 8 by a discussion of how to link and query into XML documents using the XML information set, XLink, XPath, XPointer, XML Fragment Interchange, with XLST covered in the next chapter. For database applications, the authors outline the differences between relational databases and XML documents. A very detailed treatment of how XLST transforms the source document is given, and the authors compare XLS and DOM transformations. An Internet Explorer XSL reference is included in one of the appendices of the book.

More details on the relationship between databases and XML is the subject of chapter 10, wherein the authors show how to store XML and how data can be communicated between different servers using XML. The issues involved when moving data from RDBMS to OODBMS or from Oracle to Sybase, are discussed by the authors. This is followed by an interesting discussion on how to use XML as a distributed component model for server-to-server communications via XML-Remote Procedure Call and Simple Object Access Protocol.

E-commerce applications are discussed in the next chapter, with EDI and its improvement via XML. The business markup language cXML , which allows business to business electronic commerce transactions across the Internet, is also treated in detail.

The authors then finally discuss how to render XML documents more readable and pleasing for the viewer in the next chapter using the style languages CSS and XSL. The discussion is really interesting, for the authors dig a little deeper into the foundations of style languages. The discussion of style languages as rule-based languages is particularly illuminating.

The next chapter is very interesting and its inclusion is actually very surprising, namely a discussion of the Wireless Application Protocol. The authors give an introduction to the Wireless Markup Language and WMLScript. The book ends with four useful chapters on case studies for data duality, distributed applications, a book catalog information service, and SOAP.

There are many applications of XML in many different areas, such as CellML (proprietary) used in cell biology, CML (Chemical Markup Language) for molecular chemistry, IML (Instrument Markup Language) for control of laboratory equipment, BSML (Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language) for gene sequencing, and MathML for formatting of mathematical equations. I find XML an extremely powerful approach to information reporting and I am currently developing a package called NMML (Network Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in simulation and mathematical modeling of networks, and FMML (Financial Modeling Markup Language) for use in reporting results in the modeling of financial instruments. This book, along with the W3C specifications, has been a tremendous help in the development of these applications.