XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference, 4th Edition

Introduction

This book, as the title implies, is primarily a practical reference book for professional XSLT developers. It assumes no previous knowledge of the language, and many developers have used it as their first introduction to XSLT; however, it is not structured as a tutorial, and there are other books on XSLT that provide a gentler approach for beginners.

Who This Book Is For

The book does assume a basic knowledge of XML, HTML, and the architecture of the Web, and it is written for experienced programmers. There's no assumption that you know any particular language such as Java or Visual Basic, just that you recognize the concepts that all programming languages have in common.

I have tried to make the book suitable both for XSLT 1.0 users upgrading to XSLT 2.0, and for newcomers to XSLT. This is easier to do in a reference book, of course, than a tutorial. I have also tried to make the book equally suitable whether you work in the Java or .NET world.

As befits a reference book, a key aim is that the coverage should be comprehensive and authoritative. It is designed to give you all the details, not just an overview of the 20 percent of the language that most people use 80 percent of the time. It's designed so that you will keep coming back to the book whenever you encounter new and challenging programming tasks, not as a book that you skim quickly and then leave on the shelf. If you like detail, you will enjoy this book; if not, you probably won't.

But as well as giving the detail, ...