Should I learn XML before WCF?

Question

a) I plan to start learning WCF, but I’m not sure whether it’s important to learn XML first. If XML should be learned before WCF, why?

b) In case XML should be learned prior to WCF, then I’d prefer to learn just the parts required to understand WCF. So which of the following XML technologies should be tackled and in how much detail:

• basics of XML
• DTD
• XML schemas
• XPath
• XSLT
• XQuery

thanx

Answer 1

I would suggest learning the bits of XML that you need to know while you learn WCF. For example, a colleague of mine didn't know anything about XML until he needed to know how to use XQuery for a SQL query that returned XML. That project taught him what he needed to know, so he was able to spend more time learning about XQuery with SQL Server instead of the ins and outs of DTD and XSLT.