XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference

This is exactly what I want from a technical book on a tricky, subtle topic: it is *serious* and does not kid around. If you're new to programming, XML, declarative languages, or regular expressions: this is not the book for you. If you're familar with all those things and want to put a new tool in your toolbelt, this is the book. It explains the semantics and the processing model thoroughly, instead of just describing the syntax. It also serves as a reference for XSLT 1.0, because the author carefully indicates what features are available in which version. I recommend getting the companion XPath book XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) at the same time; the XSLT book doesn't cover XPath, but you really need solid XPath skills to accomplish anything with XSLT. Just one problem: the diagrams are really ugly. They weren't designed for print; they're jaggy and blurry. I've seen the same diagrams in other materials though; I think it's part of the XSLT spec.

In addition to his obvious authority on the subject of XSLT Michael Kay is one of the best writers out there. This book gives a thorough explication of the history and concepts behind XSLT that is valuable for newcomers and informative for more experienced hands. It is written for those with experience with programming languages but new to XSLT or new to XSLT 2.0. It presents thorough documentation for elements and functions, with examples of their use.

I had to do something with XSLT. I never did really anything with XSLT before, but are very familiar with XML and programming in general. I got from a friend the prior edition (XSLT 2nd Ed.) to this one (XSLT 2.0) and was impressed about the deep knowledge, especially the practical one and loved the comparison to actual source code in other programming languages in cases where XSLT and its philosophy differs dramatically from classic programming languages. I found the answers to all my (tricky) issues, except to one where I got enough information to figure it out myself though. I struggled and still do when it comes to html tags usage as value in XSLT Functions. Be it "translate" , "regex" or "substring-after" etc. I still did not get my translate of white spaces (line break) to html line-breaks ( br - tag ) working 100%. May be the updated Edition answers this only thing that was not 100% perfect covered (for me) in the previous edition. The book "stole" an hour from me to read the interesting chapters about the programming language philosophy behind XSLT, the "functional programming" rather than "structured programming". I saw a lot of other chapters providing a well researched history of computer programming before the Internet until now. The Book is big and it is not one of those big books that are artificially inflated by adding screen shots of intuitive and straight forward pages that do not require any explanation. No, not in this case. You get over 700 pages (2nd Ed) and over 900 pages (this edition) full of great stuff that would still make a good book, even if you remove every part about XSLT from it. I came to buy the 2nd Edition today and saw the XSLT 2.0 (3rd Edition) which I obviously bought instead. I am looking forward to get the updated and obviously greatly extended version within the next few days. You get a lot of knowledge and experience for what the books price is (I am amazed how cheap it, Wrox, I think I got the better end of the bargain in case of this book ;) ) The mentioned resources in the book are also great. I added several of them next to Michael Kay's books to the Web Development Resources Section of my personal (but public) Internet Marketing and Web Development portal at [...].

Michael Kay is to XSLT what Hank Williams is to Country, what Doc Watson is to Traditional, and what Eric Clapton is to rock guitar. The reviewer below states: > Horrible, horrible usability. <br /> <br />Huh? I have used the original version of this book from when I was an XSLT newbie until it is literally falling apart, and have always found it to be extremely usable. XSLT can be difficult to master - things that seem "logical" are completely wrong, but it is also the best way to interact with XML. Forget about procedural or even OOP languages when you have XML data to deal with. XSL transforms are the way to go, and Michael explains how to do everything here - except XPATH, but I'll probably order the package with his XPATH book, too. <br />

There is no better book on XSLT. No matter if you want to learn XSLT from scratch, or have a long-term reference for the XSLT syntax. This book is the bible for XSLT users. The original book covered the 1.0 standard. This book extends that to support both 1.0 and 2.0 in the same book. There are two large pieces to the book. The first piece covers the basics of XSLT, with a tag-by-tag reference to the language, as well as XPath in the same manner. Both of these start with introductions that make it easy for novices to pick up the language. The second piece covers design patterns for templates then brings the whole work together into case study sections. XSLT is an invaluable tool for anyone who works with XML. Once you understand it you will never want to be without it. This book is the best way to learn XSLT, and the best reference for those who already know XSLT. Period.