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The book has 17 chapters and 7 Appendixes. With the exception of the opening chapter, each chapter could (should?) be a book in its own right. PHP is 'covered' in one chapter, XSLT in another SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) in a third, etc.

Each chapter does give you a feel for the topic of the chapter, enough to have a brief play, but you will be quickly reaching for a full book on the topic.

For the topics that I know, or have actually played with, they seem to be reliable and give a clear presentation. The authors drop a bit of PHP in most chapters, but a number of these appearances are gratuitous.

If you want a book on PHP, I suggest you look elsewhere. The book gives a basic introduction to most of the current XML technologies - useful for a better understanding of the range of XML technologies and maybe for choosing the technology to use, but not a book to which you will often return.