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Pin the chart above your computer!
This may sound trivial to some. But when you are digging your way through a detailed set of examples in the book, it really helps to have a schematic overview to place things in perspective. All the more so if you happen to be new to many of the topics. Even experienced users can benefit.
The book has a CD with full listings of the examples. A great time saver. Also, since the author did not provide problem sets, you can easily make up your own, based on the CD. For example, suppose you are looking at Chapter 8, "Parsing with the DOM". Take an example document and its DTD from the CD. Change the DTD to add more elements and attributes. Make some of these mandatory. Run the parser on the document and the DTD. You should get errors, as expected, because the document is missing some new required items. Understand the error messages. Then correct the document by adding instances of those items. Rerun the parser. Any errors? If not, then try adding more to the DTD and document. This will really help you learn. You can quickly build up documents of some nontrivial complexity.
Of course, you can, and should, do analogous things with the other chapters.
In terms of the reader's background (I'm talking to you): You can come from either a formal programming environment, or from a publishing/designer background. In both cases, you should already be well familiar with HTML. This is not a formal prerequisite, but a lot of things in the book really do come easier if you know HTML. The programming examples in the book are usually in java, but the author emphasises that XML is not a procedural programming language like java. Rather, it is a declarative language, where you make templates. In this sense, XML is closer to HTML than to java or C.
This book is worth your attention.
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Thud Ridge, Jack Broughton's account of his tour, for instance, although essential as a piece of F105 fighter pilot history, is not a straightforward chronological account of his experiences. Instead, Broughton picks and chooses subjects for each chapter, so although there is something of a running narrative, the text skips around a bit. Not a big problem but it can be confusing unless you've been a member of a fighter wing. Therefore, I would also say Broughton seems to be writing more to a limited audience, the fellow fighter pilot as well as the military enthusiast; hence, although a good book regarding its subject, Thud Ridge is more for those already with a base knowledge of air war and squadrons.
Another top-notch book but with a broader appeal than Thud Ridge is G.I. Basel's Pak Six. Basel's book is quite an enjoyable read. He turns a nice phrase, recounts interesting stories, and is easy to follow and understand. Basel also has a good sense of humor that helps the outsider appreciate the F105 fighter pilot mentality. Why then is Pak Six not the first book to pick up on the F105 pilot experience? Just this'length. Pak Six has about half as many pages as 100 Missions North. In spite of the fact that Basel's book was a pure pleasure to read, and I finished it in about two days, it nonetheless gets into and out of its subject too quickly. It's good to leave the reader wanting more, but I wanted much more.
It was after I read these two books that I came across 100 Missions North. Bell's book is the one I wished I'd picked up first. At 300 pages, it provides a detailed, nicely paced, chronological account of the 100 missions he flew. Although he doesn't literally account for all 100 missions, Bell presents the highlights of his most significant missions and discusses life outside the cockpit as well. Like Basel, he is easy to understand and can tell a good story, and like a seasoned writer, is not embarrassed to confess his fears and mistakes while flying missions. Likewise, he provides honest observations about the world and people around him during his tour.
For anyone interested in this side of the Vietnam War, all three books are a must, and certainly, all three offer something unique that in total present a thorough picture of what it must have been like to be there, a subject of particular interest to me since my father was there too, but he's no longer around to recount his experiences. Of the group, 100 Missions North is the most well-rounded regarding its subject and is certainly a worthy place to begin getting a grasp of life inside the cockpit while flying bombing missions into a region reputed to be the most heavily defended in the history of warfare.
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No fiction writer could possibly convince their publisher of the logic of the storyline that a convicted murderer would be released again and again into the population to run rampant on drugs, go unsupervised and undetected on parole, and commit the atrocities described in this book. This story is a valuable study in the nature/nurture contribution to the serial killer personality.