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.