This book is clear and concise. Though the comparison between the Micro/Mini/Mainframes are a about 10 years out of date, the actual target material is right on. This book is organized in such a way as to be a powerful learning tool as well as a awesome reference. I couldn't have hoped for anything better.

Doug Lowe does a great job with this easy to read text on MVS / TSO. Get this book if you need to jump right into MVS. Plenty of examples and real world analogies make this book a must have for your reference library.

...I must say that it is the best book on remote sensing I have ever come across...

While I wouldn't recommend this book for the casual reader who wants to know more about King Henry VIII, for scholars, it's wonderful to be able to see the original source documents that are so often briefly quoted in biographies.

This is the definitive source of information on the topic. It is a better teaching/learning tool than Mike Colishaw's own text, and he is the "guru" who headed up the team that created REXX. If you cannot take a class in REXX, do not hesitate to pay $... for a used copy of this text.

There are many examples with explanation of each line of code. ISPF Panel (screen) examples. Great book for the beginner Clist programmer and wonderful reference book for the guru.

This book is an example of a great idea gone mediocre. The need for a quick reference guide is definitely there, however, the format and layout of this book leaves a lot to be desired. Content is good, if you can find it.

This book is loaded with tips and techniques to save time and make your job easier.

This pocket sized book is great at going step by step through any TSO jam you may be in. It is also great for the beginner wanting to know more. The wording is easy to read and follow. It's great reference material to have beside any computer.

I would not recommend this book due to anyone with any hope of understanding this fickle and sometimes difficult language. There are some thing the author does not cover and some she giggles over like a schoolgirl. I don't think she has a full grasp of reality yet alone the subject.

Gabe Gargiulo's REXX Quick Reference Guide, published by MVS Training, Inc. is a must have for anyone who writes code in REXX on any platform. The book is a well-organized reference guide that explains every REXX function, verb and reserved variable. The book covers the REXX language in alphabetical order so it is easy to find what you are looking for. For example, to learn more about hte PARSE statement, simply look in hte "P" pages. This is a handy format for quick reference guides because most people use them for specific help on specific coding problems. Maybe a function or very bas parameters that a programmer has never used before and he or she needs ot know more about them. Or, maybe a programmer noted a feature of some function during earlier research but didn't have a need for it at the time. Now, they have a need for the untried feature and want to know how it works. Here is where a books like this is invaluable. Interspersed throughout hte books are some useful infomrational topics. These include compatiblity issues for REXX for crsoss-platform code, concatenation-both within the REXX language and for the SYSEXEC/SYSPROC DD names of TSO, a full explanation of how to exploit functions, edit macros and finally, precedence of operators. These extra topics all serve as valuable aids to REXX programming that can't be pinned down to a specific verb or function. This book wouldn't be appropriate for someone who doesn't already have some familiarity with REXX-it is not a "how-to" or tutorial on the REXX language. Instead, it is the kind of book that a REXX programmer should have close by when he or she is about to "get creative" and do some power coding. Personally, I always find these types of books useful. A typical thing that happens to me is that I spot something that the author documents as a language feature that I had been coding "by hand" for years. That is , I discover a better and easier way to accomplish something. I then adopt the "new" (to me) technique permanently. I like that. It makes me a better, faster and more accurate programmer!

excellent. one shouldn't expect anything less from the GABE. The reference complete GABE's first book (1993) about REXX. not a day goes by without a flip-thru....

This book is quite interesting. Right now, I cannot remember whether the Spring and Autumn Annals came from this of vice versa but either way, both books report on the same era of ancient Chinese history. The Tso chuan groups its stories into very readable sections. Most of the stories teach some sort of moral lesson, some of which are still applicable today. the only fault with the book is the amount of names and since I am not an expert by any means in Chinese, the names were quite similar to me and and I easily confused them. But other than that, this was a very interesting book.

I've been an MVS/COBOL application programmer and TSO user for over 10 years and wanted to learn how to build CLISTs or as the book advertises: "Combine those commands into CLIST or REXX procedures to automate the jobs you do most often." Well, after two good-hearted attempts, the book sits on the shelf. It contains a lot of information but is not a how-to book or one that contains useful examples, in my opinion. This book would probably be better suited for someone who is already familiar with the topic and wants to know all the possible commands.

This book presents a complete picture of the MVS environment with chapters on REXX, CLISTs, Dialog Manager, TSO commands among others. While it does not have the complete syntax for any of these components, it is a good starting point for all of them, and one of the few reference books to cover all of them in one book. This allows the author to show the interaction between the components. In all, a very helpful book for the MVS developer.

This book is a good source for beginners who wants learn to manipulate the files and use simple TSO commands in MVS/TSO area. Illustration with screen samples are superb. As a guide for developers, I did not find the author handling the subject in depth.