XMYSpy Handbook -- A Really Bad Book?

[OldRover]

Is "the Offical XMYSpy Handbook" (ISBN 0-7645-4964-2, second printing) a
Really Bad Book? It seems to suffer from such poor organization,
writing, editing, and indexing that I'm ready to give up on what seemed
at first like a good product, and recommend some other toolset to my
consulting clients.

Rather than go into elaborate detail quite yet, I'd appreciate some
preliminary feedback from other readers of the Handbook who are
experienced toolsmiths and book authors, as I am myself.

 

[valued customer]

Rather than go into elaborate detail quite yet, I'd appreciate some

preliminary feedback from other readers of the Handbook who are
experienced toolsmiths and book authors, as I am myself.

Well, one thing is to "always consider the source" ... for example,
you probably know very well yourself that an excellent software engineer
does not always transition easily into an excellent GUI designer, or
an excellent Book Author. Some companies and cultures just haven't quite
figured this out yet.

Does that mean you should abandon a product just because of a book?
That does not seem to follow. Just curious, what other tools would
you recommend as alternatives?

 

[User]

Well, one thing is to "always consider the source" ... for example,
you probably know very well yourself that an excellent software engineer
does not always transition easily into an excellent GUI designer, or
an excellent Book Author. Some companies and cultures just haven't quite
figured this out yet.

Yes, and that's precisely my concern. The author, Larry Kim, is billed
as Technical Director for Altnova, and this is their self-proclaimed
"offical" handbook. So I have to assume that the sloppy way this book
and CD were prepared -- obviously with no Q/A or testing by anyone,
neither an XML expert, nor an XML novice representing the intended
reader, nor anyone competent at the publisher's end -- says something
about the seriousness of Altnova as a vendor. There's a big difference
between a project and a product, and if Altnova can't close that gap,
then I'd like to know about it before I advise anyone to spend money on
purchases, and even more money on staff training and support.

 

[Andy Dingley]

Does that mean you should abandon a product just because of a book?

I don't know.

XML Spy is site-standard at my current location, and is very far from
impressing me. Given its general bugginess and general unpleasantness,
I certainly wouldn't buy a book from these people.

 

[Altova Announcements]

Actually, just to clarify things a bit: the "XMLSpy Handbook" by Wiley &
Sons was published in 2002 and (a) is not an Altova publication and (b)
relates to a previous version of our software - XMLSPY Version 5. It was
written by an employee who no longer works for Altova, and since this is not
an Altova product, it didn't undergo our usual QA process.

The most current software version - XMLSPY Version 2004 - is documented in
the corresponding reference manual, which can be downloaded in PDF format
for FREE, or can be purchased as a printed book:

http://www.altova.com/download_doc.html

Altova closely monitors the quality of our documentation, and our reference
manuals are updated with every release.

 

[Stefan Ram]

our usual QA process. (...)
http://www.altova.com/download_doc.html

The W3C Markup Validation Service says about this page
"This page is not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!".

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.altova.com/download_doc.html

"Line 41, column 9120: end tag for "table" which is not finished"

The XML-validator at

http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/~richard/xml-check.html

(check "[v] validate?")

reports

Warning: Content model for table does not allow it to end here
in unnamed entity at line 41 char 9121 of http://www.altova.com/download_doc.html

 

[User]

Thank you! This is one of the most helpful and fully responsive replies
that I have ever gotten to my criticism of a vendor-supplied (or
apparently vendor-sponsored) document.

I am particularly pleased to see that you're offering the presumably
definitive reference manuals for your products as free PDF files, AND
offering them as printed books at reasonable prices. This should be
standard practice in our industry; there's no limit to how many ways a
tutorial or user's manual can be written by outsiders, but there is
absolutely no substitute for a hardcore reference manual which has been
checked line-by-line by people who actually wrote the code.

________________________________________________________________________

Actually, just to clarify things a bit: the "XMLSpy Handbook" by Wiley &
Sons was published in 2002 and (a) is not an Altova publication and (b)
relates to a previous version of our software - XMLSPY Version 5. It was
written by an employee who no longer works for Altova, and since this is not
an Altova product, it didn't undergo our usual QA process.

The most current software version - XMLSPY Version 2004 - is documented in
the corresponding reference manual, which can be downloaded in PDF format
for FREE, or can be purchased as a printed book:

http://www.altova.com/download_doc.html

Altova closely monitors the quality of our documentation, and our reference
manuals are updated with every release.

[quoted text muted]
between a project and a product, and if Altnova can't close that gap,
then I'd like to know about it before I advise anyone to spend money on
purchases, and even more money on staff training and support.