That probably sums up the strengths and weaknesses of the book. Like Dragnet, which concentrates on "just-the-facts-ma'am" and quickly plows through a story, this book quickly gets through the facts in each of its chapters. The writing is clear and straightforward. However, it probably skimps a little in relating a particular subject to how it is actually being applied to the real world, or what tools are available to implement it. Of course, including that material also is a fast way to date a book, and make it obsolete more quickly. So this book may be even more useful in a classroom setting, where the instructor can provide the real-world context, than it would as a teach-yourself book. Since the authors are actual teachers, this may be their intent.

The book itself is a brief 221 pages, including the index. It probably wouldn't have hurt to splurge on an extra ten pages or so, sprinkled throughout the book, suggesting some of the tools you could use such as text editors, or specialized XML or HTML editors that can help you write valid XML code. It may also help to have a website where you can download some of the bigger chunks of example code, to save the drudgery of typing it in yourself. As a former instructor, I know that there are definite benefits to having your students get familiar with the actual nuts-and-bolts by typing it in. On the other hand, the book does emphasize speedy learning with "a time-saving approach."