Murach's CICS Desk Reference [Paperback]

Raul Menendez (Author), Doug Lowe (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programmer's Reference | Publication Date: September 2002

This new edition of Murach's classic 'CICS Programmer's Desk Reference' is updated throughout to present both the latest versions of CICS and the latest CICS programming practices. An easy-to-use CICS command reference makes up the bulk of the book. But there is also new or expanded material on CICS program design, creating HTML documents from BMS mapsets for web-based CICS applications, defining CICS resources, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When I am working on designing and coding CICS/COBOL programs, the only thing that spends more time on my desk than this book is my terminal."

About the Author

Raul Menendez and Doug Lowe

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates; 3rd edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890774170
• ISBN-13: 978-1890774172
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book to learn CICS for the web, November 11, 2002

By 

Celia Redmore "Celia Redmore" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murach's CICS Desk Reference (Paperback)

This is the fourth of Murach's books to find a permanent place on my bookshelf. Most technical books I read once and pass on to the public library. I kept these books because it's so easy to quickly find in them what I need -- and yet they are very complete. Everything is here in one book.

Each CICS command is laid out in a set format: function, syntax, options, exceptional conditions, notes & tips and a coding example. Most of them fit on two pages and you have everything you need to use the command in one location.

The book covers traditional items, such as BMS maps, VSAM files, and CICS service transactions, such as CEDF and CEMT. It also has a nice section explaining how to code programs that have a web interface, including how to generate and manipulate HTML documents.

I was also pleased to see that the occasional places where C programs behave differently from COBOL programs were documented. That's the kind of detail most books on CICS don't bother to mention, which can be very frustrating. But I couldn't find anything that was missing from this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written especially for experienced CICS/COBOL programmers, November 8, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murach's CICS Desk Reference (Paperback)

Collaboratively written by CICS programmer and expert Raul Menendez with the assistance of Doug Lowe, Murach's CICS Desk Reference is a solid and accessible resource for CICS/COBOL programmers. Individual chapters cover useful programming guidelines for creating and debugging readable, well-formatted code; syntax and option descriptions for 121 CICS commands; Basic Mapping Support macros; CICS program development aids for working with VSAM files, using RDO, using Master Terminal Transaction, and more. A "user friendly", information-packed resource filled cover to cover with sample code, examples, tips, tricks, and techniques, Murach's CICS Desk Reference is an excellent and recommended guide written especially for experienced CICS/COBOL programmers looking to save time and headaches when they need to look up reliable information quickly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Reference, June 11, 2007

By 

F. Mosesso - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murach's CICS Desk Reference (Paperback)

This books is an excellent reference to the experienced CICS programmer. It contains the majority of information that an experienced programmer needs to locate quickly to apply to problems at hand. There are not too many technical books like this available on the market that contain the gammut of related reference material all in one place in an easy to locate format. In addition it supplies various "notes and tips" on using each of the CICS features presented as well as code fragments to see them utilized. I found this an invaluable reference worth aquiring.
However I would not recommend it for CICS novices. Novices would be better served with Murachs "CICS For The COBOL Programmer" book which provides more in the way of detailed training. This reference while excellent could confuse a CICS novice since there are several CICS concepts that need to be grasped almost all at once to be and effective CICS programmer.