The IBM 32-bit operating system OS/2, for 80386 and 80486 IBM personal computers and clones, is now well established. Some of the minor bugs in the first version (2.0) have now been removed in release 2.1, and numerous improvements and additions have been made. The major items are the inclusion of a disk-doubling compression facility, compatibility with Microsoft Windows 3.1, improved device drivers, and new fonts.

The problems with the original OS/2 2.0 included the poor documentation and the late arrival of C and C++ compilers for the new system. These difficulties have been progressively remedied, and this book is the latest and most authoritative description of the inner workings of the Workplace Shell, which is the replacement for the Desktop Manager of the original OS/2 1.x system. Both of the authors were members of the IBM team that developed OS/2, and they speak with authority.

The book’s 23 chapters cover every aspect of the system and discuss the tools that are necessary to develop system software. An extensive index makes finding particular topics easy. Considering the nature of the book, the absence of references or a bibliography is unimportant.

The first two chapters explain the nature of the tools needed to make effective use of the program examples that form much of the following text. The recommended (in fact, almost mandatory) C and C++ compiler is the IBM C Set/2, which is included in Workset/2. C Set/2 is a good compiler, but some users, myself included, might prefer to use one of the integrated compilers with which they are familiar. The authors’ second recommendation is that a good 32-bit editor be acquired. They seem not to favor the system and extended editors included with OS/2. A resource compiler is also needed.

The third chapter explains in detail how to start developing a program and presents a complete, detailed, and extensively commented C template source code example. This material is typical of the contents of all of the succeeding chapters: the explanatory text is adequate but not verbose, but the examples are complete and can be used or modified to good effect. A complete enumeration of chapter headings is pointless. Suffice it to say that everything of importance is covered: windows, dialogue boxes, bitmaps, menus, sliders, control elements, dynamic link libraries, system hooks, and initialization.

This complete and authoritative work can be recommended without reservation to programmers, teachers, and students alike. My only adverse comment is that, although the publishers state on the cover that this book “Covers Version 2.1” and the review copy contains a sheet saying that the book is a “Corrected Version,” I found no indication in the text of where the differences between OS/2 2.0 and OS/2 2.1 lie.