XML Power

This should be a fun book…

From Eric Van Der Vlist:

I probably don’t need to say that it has been fun to write: I have already said so of all my previous books (except XML Schema which has been a nightmare to write because the language is so horrible) …

And I found the NOT .text.sgml FAQ via Marc Liyanage’s del.icio.us feed which contains this gem (among many others):

Q.  I've tried reading the (XML | SGML | XSL | XPATH | DSSSL | ...)
    specification, but it doesn't make any sense!  There's too
    much jargon!

A.  Specification authors deliberately obfuscate the text of
    ISO and W3C standards to ensure that normal people
    (e.g., Perl programmers) can't use the technology without
    assistance from the so-called "experts" who designed the
    specs.

    Fortunately, there is a handy translation table you can use:

    --------------------------------------------------
    ISO/W3C terminology			Common name
    --------------------------------------------------
    attribute                       tag
    attribute value                 tag
    attribute value literal         tag
    attribute value specification   tag
    character reference             tag
    comment                         tag
    comment declaration             tag
    declaration                     tag
    document type declaration       tag
    document type definition        tag
    element                         tag
    element type                    tag
    element type name               tag
    entity                          tag
    entity reference                tag
    general entity                  tag
    generic identifier              tag
    literal                         tag
    numeric character reference     tag
    parameter entity                tag
    parameter literal               tag
    processing instruction          tag
    tag                             command
    --------------------------------------------------

    With the help of this table, even Visual Basic programmers
    should have no trouble deciphering ISO prose.