January 02, 2006

Browser-Based XML : Creating Applications with Ajax, CSS, XHTML, XML, and XSLT (Paperback)

Amazon.com: Browser-Based XML : Creating Applications with Ajax, CSS, XHTML, XML, and XSLT: Books: M. Peterson,Kurt Cagle

Editorial Reviews

Book Description
This book covers everything you need to know to build browser-based applications. The emphasis is on using XML, Document Object Model (DOM) and XSLT for processing, and a variety of presentation methods including XMLHTTP (Ajax), XHTML, XForms, CSS, RSS, and Atom. Following the core of REST (representational state transfer) model of web services, advanced material in the book focuses on server side programming and the various ways of processing and serving requests for XML data. There are also helpful hints for which server-side applications best support client-side processing approaches.

Now that sounds like a good book! ;)

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While I've been writing this book for what feels like six(6) years [1] this is actually the first time I've seen this. Kurt linked to it the end of his predictions post [2] which I linked to in my last post. Which of course, based on the content surrounding this link means that thanks to both Kurt and Amazon (thats not a sarcastic comment... I really mean that!), I don't have to make any official announcements of my own and run risk of saying things to soon (or better said, before I'm allowed to, contractually speaking), as if not already obvious...

Kurt has agreed to work on this title with me, made obvious by the fact that he is listed as one of the authors on the above linked title :D

Obviously I've already made mention of the Firefox title I am working on with him. And now you know there are actually two books we are working on together.[3] Pretty cool, huh?!!! :D

I'm definitely excited for TONS of reasons because of this, primarily based on the fact that it definitely brings an element of interesting contrast between two very different approaches to writing coupled with the tendency Kurt and I have to come at things with two very different viewpoints as to which tech companies and the various technologies they are focused on matter, and why.

What's most interesting about this is that when all is said and done, we have a somewhat eerie tendency to end up drawing the same technical conclusions, which in the case of this titles content, Browser-based/Client-side XML technologies are of MAJOR significance in the here and now AND even more so, in the future. Its companies that realize this and develop applications built upon solid foundations of time-tested, proven technologies and/or development models/methodologies, which will have the biggest impact in the current and future technology markets.

Want to learn how to write the fastest, most efficient, most feature rich, cross-browser/platform XML-based applications using XSLT and other Ajax-styled technologies, as well as CSS, etc... as well as their server side counterpart? Buy this book! :D

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Setting aside shameless self-plugs (for now ;) whats most interesting about the above anomaly is that in and of itself it showcases why XML REALLY MATTERS... Interop in both processors and tools, regardless of OS, platform, and browser combination.

No matter how you slice it, the same XML data/files can be used on any OS, platform, and browser combination using any number of supporting tools, parsers, processors, etc... So the fact that one of us might feel one company is better/worse than another, we both agree that in the end, its the XML that matters and in particular XML in the browser or on the client that matters most. Server-side XML processing is all fine and dandy, and an important piece of server side development none-the-less. But forcing the server to both access the data from the database, convert this into an XML format, to then process that data on the same server? Ummmm... whats so great and wonderful about that?

Well except, of course, if your passing XML messages from one process to the next, then yeah, thats both exciting and important. But using this model on the server then opens the door to an agnostic approach to processing data as that same XML can be used locally or on a client half way around the world, and it doesnt matter. The result will be the same, just spread out across a greater surface area (similar to the end of the article from last week regarding the importance of processing XML on the client and how it opens the door for the server to be OH SO MUCH MORE efficient.) and as such our systems become MUCH MORE efficient overall.

Anyway, more on this and quite a bit more will be found on these blogs [Kurt, me], in these books [O'Reilly, Apress], and well as on our O'Reilly blogs [Kurt, me]

Until next time... Actually, guess what? I'm actually taking my a$$ of this desk chair and putting it instead into one of the lift chairs at Brighton. I need a day off and what better way to spend a day off than snowboarding in the mountains and snow of Utah state, particularly the mountains and snow of the Wasatch range?

Ain't life grand... :D

Bye for now :)

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[1] : Six months in reality, but I've already mentioned the fact that the plus side of Opera's XSLT support meant a downside in the completion of this title in a timely manner. I doubt I will ever admit to anyone how much of the title I have ended up re-writing from scratch, but again... I'm not complaining as this title is now significantly more appropriate as a development methodology foundation for cross-browser/platform weblication development.

[2] : Which, if you haven't read yet... WOW! There's a few things inside that he mentioned he agreed with me on, which is cool (if not obvious from our last "Open Office" Podcast, while Kurt and I are EXTREMELY good friends, we don't always see eye-to-eye with each other on our view-points. But I think thats part of the reason we are such good friends... Our conversations are NEVER dull! :D) but the level of detail and, to me at least, precision detail as to what could very easily be the case with most, if not all of this... WOW! Thats all I can say as this post is REALLY good.

[3] : Not sure if this will become somewhat of a tradition or not (honestly, I have no clue either way... at this point I think its safe to say that both of us haven't thought about any future titles beyond these two... if you ever decide to write a book, you'll quickly know what I mean when I suggest that once you become absorbed into the content of any given title, thrying to think of what else you can write about is not exactly an easything to do.