XML and Cocoon - the new Scheme?. I guess I'm going to have to order a couple of books from Amazon - The Little Schemer and a book on Cocoon. Any suggestions on the Cocoon book I should pick up? [News from the Forest]

Be careful with The Little Schemer, I'd look at a copy in the local bookstore first.  It's very idiosyncratic; the format is question and answer, where you probably don't know the answer to the question.  It takes some getting used to.  Phil Windley recommends Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, and Lambda the Ultimate just ran as item contrasting How to Design Programs with SICP.  That said, I like Little Schemer as a lightweight intro to the subject.  A friend loaned me SICP, and I plan to start on that after Little Schemer, but I'm stalled on the "Lambda the Ultimate" chapter - that's where the subject really gets deep.  It seems like Scheme books want you to learn programming from the ground up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be frustrating.  It's not like every book on Java or C# which wants to give you OO theory in one chapter, though.  It's just that functional programming languages don't work like the languages most of us are used to.

I agree on Cocoon.  I used it a couple years ago when Cocoon was version 1.0 and I was doing Java full time.  I thought it was the coolest idea ever; I think 2.0 was a total rearchitecture and rewrite so probably nothing I know applies anymore.  I've purchased Cocoon: Building XML Applications, but haven't cracked the cover yet.