RE: XForms Books

Deficiencies I find in many books regarding XML (XForms included) and CGI
are 1) lack of complete examples, 2) an informative discussion of example
code, and 3) little or no pictures/figures of resultant output ("Here's the
code, and this is what you should see!").  Sometimes I see authors try to
explain a concept with code that is more advanced than the topic itself; no
good-paced tutorial is provided.
 
The authors need to do a much better job at this.  Very few XML books I can
cite that are worth the $$$ one pays for them.
 
--john

-----Original Message-----
From: AndrewWatt2001@aol.com [mailto:AndrewWatt2001@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 1:24 PM
To: www-forms@w3.org; XForms@yahoogroups.com
Subject: XForms Books


I guess at least some on list will know that a couple of XForms books are
now in print, both authored by XForms WG members.

"XForms - XML Powered Web Forms" by T.V. Raman I would classify as an
overview of XForms rather than a hands on tutorial. I am still reading it so
my opinion may change.

"XForms Essentials" by Micah Dubinko is, in my view, again largely an
overview rather than a hands on tutorial but in the online version it seems
to me that there is more tutorial than the previous book. The text of a
draft of  Micah's book is still available online at
http://www.dubinko.info/writing/xforms/book.html
<http://www.dubinko.info/writing/xforms/book.html> . I haven't seen the
printed book yet so can't comment on how significant any differences from
the online version might be.

Both books, in my view, carry forward a deficiency of the XForms
specification - a lack of a good range of complete examples. I guess the WG
members feel/felt that specification is enough. It's not a view I share.
While some people learn from specifications many others learn more
effectively from good examples.

Personally, I see a gap in the market for a good hands on tutorial book on
XForms with a range of good, working XForms examples. The authors of the
above books may choose to differ. :)

Andrew Watt
http://www.tfosorciM.org/blog <http://www.tfosorcim.org/blog>  - "Reflecting
on Microsoft"