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Title: A Big Waste
Review: This book is a big waste of money. Besides being very expensive, most of the book covers other subjects other than XML, with little relevance to XML. Although there is some useful information on using XML with Java, there is way too much information on the Microsoft implementation of XML, (when the book actually gets around to mentioning XML) and the standardized W3 version of XML seems to be included as an afterthought. The reviewers who gave this book such a high rating probably didn't read the book very well, or are hired by the publisher. A much better book is the Liz Castro Quickstart guide to XML (for a fourth of the price of the Deitel!), although it is centered around the W3's standard for XML, and doesn't mention Microsoft's implementation. Castro text, however, is more suited to learning from the ground up. The Deitel text is a disaster and I wish that I had just kept my money.
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