Rating: 

Unfortuantely, partially due to the nature of XML as a developing standard, This presents the material more as a pocket tutorial than a pocket reference. Witness the fact that there is no "namespace" reference index in the page and the section headings are buried in the bindings. Here you have a hierarchical structured language but a book who's structure does not reflect it!

Still, it provides a convenient tag reference, once you can find it. Again, the descriptions seem overly didatic. But I guess this can prove an immense help to those new to XML as well as due to the lack of a "definitive guide" or "complete reference" for XML.

A minor note is that it would have been nice if he prefaced the namespaces with the latest namespaces, as well as stated in which specification a tag may have appeared. I ran into trouble with the xsl:invoke / xsl:macro /xsl:content which I was unable to find in the most recent XSLT specification at W3 <http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt>.

Also, it could do with a chapter devoted to the DOM for people who will be accessing XML programmatically--MSDN maanged to cram it into an unreadable page, XML:Pocket Reference should devote at least five readable pages.

Part of me wonders why O'Reilly didn't put a big red BETA EDITION across the cover. I could use a discount on the next edition when the working drafts get finalized.

Now having been overly harsh on Mr. Eckstein's work, I have to turn around and recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone trying to pick up XML. Like all of the Pocket Reference series, this one is a winner. The only disappointment they will find is that ORA stopped including the lay-flat binding so they're liable to break the binding of even this tiny book before they've figured out XML and even then, still be referencing it a lot.

-terry