Cics for the Cobol Programmer: An Introductory Course

Rating:
Summary: Good Info, Poor to Terrible organization of the examples.
Review: I found the book informative and simple. Good for a beginner, which is its objective. I have one complaint and I hope the author and/or the publisher will read this. In many instances with few exceptions the references to the charts, illustrations and examples require turning a page instead of being able to stay on the same page while looking at the graphic. At first this was a minor irritation, but it grew to be a MAJOR FAILING. Help, please in the next edition of this book put the explanation on the same page as or the opposite page from the illustration or example that it describes.

Rating:
Summary: Exec CICD Read...
Review: I took two years of COBOL, then JCL, and now CICS. Both my JCL and CICS classes used Lowe's books. The layout of these books is bad. The books are just plain ugly. These books are just as text oriented as COBOL itself. The few pictures that are included are hard to understand. In general, almost all of CICS is covered, but it takes time to figure what is being covered. The manufacturing process for these books is bad, too. The books are cut lop-sided, to the point where some of the text is lost. I had no page numbers because they were cut off. A friend of mine had pages where the left side of the page was cut off. BAD QUALITY.

Rating:
Summary: Great for the experienced mail frame programmer...
Review: This book, along with Lowe's Part 2: Advanced course, is on my desk at all times. I have been a mainframe programmer for 37 years but altho I have done lots of interactive programming, somehow I never used CICS. I am currently doing lots of Year 2000 changes to CICS systems and these books have made it possible for me to do so. If you want less basic detail, he also has written The CICS Programmer's Desk Reference which is for the programmer with real CICS training. All three of these books are seen on shelves in any IS shop so check 'em out to see which you want