The body of the review by Ivan Flores is inaccurate and misleading. He seems to be treating the book as a text for an introduction to computer organization and assembly language. Since this is definitely not the purpose of the book, I can only assume that the review was prepared after at best a cursory examination of the book. It is more important, however, to describe the book for its intended audience rather than further dwell on the flaws in the review.

The purpose and intended audience of the book are clearly stated in the preface and the introductory pages of the first chapter. The primary purpose is to explain the roles that common system software components play during the life-cycle of a program from source statement form through execution. A secondary purpose is to provide a basis for distinguishing between roles of hardware and software when a computer is viewed inward from the applications programmer level.

The book is intended for readers who (1) know at least one higher-level programming language, (2) understand simple data structures, and (3) have had at least minimal exposure to computer organization and assembly language. The book focuses on the function of system software components in providing an interface between programmers (people) and computers (software-enhanced machines).

The book is organized by classes of software components (i.e., assemblers, loaders, higher-level language processors, and operating systems) with a separate chapter for each class. Each major software component is examined by explaining what the component does, when it does it, and basically how it achieves its function. In addition, an introductory chapter provides (1) an overview of the scope and intent of the book, (2) a brief discussion of those general aspects of computer organization that relate to the discussions of the software components, and (3) an introduction to the particular machine used to provide specific examples in the explanations of the various software components. The background information in this chapter is neither intended nor represented as a substitute for a standard book on computer organization.

This book has been used at Corpus Christi State University each semester for the past two years in a course that is required by both major tracks within our computing curricula. For our CIS track, the course is a survey course that ties together the technical aspects of several of the major areas of formal computing activity. For our system software track, the course serves as an overview of in-depth courses that follow. At the end of each course, we ask students to complete an anonymous questionnaire for the purpose of evaluating the course, the instructor, and the textbook. Evaluations for the course and textbook have been consistently high, and most students have found the book to be clear and easy to read.