Customer Reviews

Modern Programming Using Rexx

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I guess if I had been able to read the preface before ordering this book, or had paid closer attention to the author's "review" of it, I would have realized that this was not the book for me. It uses REXX just incidentally to its main thrust - an introduction to programming. Its use of CMS and of the XEDIT and KEDIT editors for its examples (having been written 13 years ago, before REXX was as widespread as it now is) leave the reader who is looking for mainframe ISPF edit macro tips out of the picture to a large extent. The book relies heavily on "text book" programming examples, such as sorting techniques and how to approach an assignment like writing a tic-tac-toe game. Because I was looking for something quite different in the book, I could not take up the intellectual challenge of studying these examples in detail.

The "reviewer" above complains that Cowlishaw's cover looks a lot like ours and wonders if we stole it. The fact is that I designed the cover and that Mike liked it so well he asked permission to use it, which I (of course) granted. So there was no theft and any copying was with (my) permission.

I would not have "rated" the book, but Amazon insisted that I must. It was the best I could do.

Don't know anything about this book. I'm extremely familiar with M.F. Cowlishaw's 'A Practical Approach to Programming'. I'm wondering why O'hara's and Gomberg's book has an almost identical cover. This smells rotten.