“CTRON is a project aimed at standardizing operating system interface specifications for use in a number of application fields all having to do with communication networks” (from the preface). CTRON is one of the projects sparked off by Japan’s TRON Association. The TRON Association began in 1984 with the goal of devising a new open computer architecture. The word TRON itself refers to what is called the real-time operating system nucleus. The C in CTRON stands for “communications.” Related BTRON, ITRON, and MTRON projects address business, industrial, and macro applications.

The unnamed authors of the book state that its aim is to explain the aims of the CTRON subproject, to place it in the context of the overall TRON project, and to give guidelines for the use of the interface specifications. The 208 pages of the book do not contain much narrative; they consist mostly of lists of factual information about the decisions made in the project. The book is divided into two sections. The “General Introduction” consists of five chapters: “Overview of CTRON,” “Basic OS,” “Extended OS,” “System Functions,” and “CTRON Product Development and Portability.” The second part provides “General Rules for Interface Design and Specification” in seven chapters: “Role of General Rules,” “CTRON Reference Model,” “Licenses,“ “Specification Format and Notation,” “Rules for Name Management,” “Design Rules,” and “Specification Management Rules.” The list of references is similarly a list of pointers to JIS and ISO standards, with no pointers to more general introductions or motivations for the TRON projects. I would expect that for someone who already knows about TRON and CTRON, and needs no further convincing that they are a good line of development, this book could be a useful reference.