Recommendations for books on Python and XML

[enjoylife_95135]

Hi,
I'm looking for recommendations for Python/XML books. Amazon.com
had 2 relevant books, Python&XML by Christopher Jones (from O'Reilly)
and XML processing with Python by Sean McGrath.The O'Reilly book
seemed to have better reviews.

But it concerns me that both books are rather old! Does anyone
have any newer references? Otherwise does the relative age of the
books (+3 years) really matter?

About myself, I'm a C and Perl programmer from a while back. I'm
learning Python and I want to get started with using it to manipulate
XML. I don't know much about XML either, but I'm familiar with HTML.

Thanks!
S

 

[Arto Viitanen]

enjoylife> Hi, I'm looking for recommendations for Python/XML
enjoylife> books. Amazon.com had 2 relevant books, Python&XML by Christopher
enjoylife> Jones (from O'Reilly) and XML processing with Python by Sean
enjoylife> McGrath.The O'Reilly book seemed to have better reviews.

enjoylife> But it concerns me that both books are rather old! Does anyone
enjoylife> have any newer references? Otherwise does the relative age of the
enjoylife> books (+3 years) really matter?

Python has SAX and DOM. Since they are language independent standards, you
could use any XML documentation for programming and then check some Python
manuals (like http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.4/lib/lib.html). The XML
documents are normally for Java, but I guess there is no big difference.

 

[Ron Stephens]

I liked Python & XML, by Christopher A. Jones and Fred L. Drake, Jr.,
an O'Reilly book. I have posted a book review here
www.awaretek.com/book.html

I have not read the McGrath book, XML Processing with Python, but
scanning it in the bookstore it also looked pretty good.

Ron Stephens

 

[Cameron Laird]

I liked Python & XML, by Christopher A. Jones and Fred L. Drake, Jr.,
an O'Reilly book. I have posted a book review here
www.awaretek.com/book.html

I have not read the McGrath book, XML Processing with Python, but
scanning it in the bookstore it also looked pretty good.

Ron Stephens

Sean's book *is* good, if dated, at least for some uses.
Some people with an interest in XML and Python will find
that *Text Processing in Python* <URL: http://gnosis.cx/TPiP/ >
is ideal: thorough, rich, interesting, and accurate.

 

[enjoylife_95135]

Cool. I went with your recommendation and picked up the Jones/Drake
book from the bookstore.
The customer reviews for the McGrath book on amazon.com weren't too
good BTW, which was another factor in my decision. The O'Reilly book
had 2 great reviews and 1 bad one.

Since you seem to enjoy reviewing books, I'd be interested in your
opinion of:
http://www.diveintopython.org

Thanks!
S

 

[Uche Ogbuji]

Cool. I went with your recommendation and picked up the Jones/Drake
book from the bookstore.

In that case you might want to browse

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/11/py-xml.html

Also, I have a brief discussion of books at the start of

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/09/18/py.html

Overall, see also

http://www.xml.com/pub/at/24
http://uche.ogbuji.net/akara/nodes/2003-01-01/pyxml-akara?xslt=/akara/akara.xslt

Good luck.

--
Uche Ogbuji Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net http://4Suite.org http://fourthought.com
Perspective on XML: Steady steps spell success with Google -
http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=9663
Use XML namespaces with care -
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-namcar.html
Managing XML libraries - http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=9160
Commentary on "Objects. Encapsulation. XML?" -
http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=9090
Harold's Effective XML -
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think25.html
A survey of XML standards -
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-stand4/

 

[enjoylife_95135]

Thank you so much for your input. I will be sure to follow your column
carefully. Lots of fun catching up to do now

Regards,
S