Tyne designed this book as a detailed introduction to using IBM’s OS/2 2.1 operating system. Nearly the entire book consists of a topic-by-topic discussion of exactly how to perform different common actions from OS/2’s front end, the Workplace Shell (WPS).

The book consists of 18 chapters:

• Introduction

• Using Objects

• Windows

• On-line Information

• Desktop Pop-up Menu

• Object Pop-up Menus

• Open--Settings for Objects

• Open--Settings for Programs

• Extended Menu Selections

• OS/2 System Folder

• Customizing the System

• Installation Features

• Palettes

• Using Templates

• Printer and Shredder

• Multimedia

• Helpful Hints

• Conclusion

The aim of this book, as stated on the first page, is to act as a tutorial for the new user while serving as a useful reference guide for the more advanced user. The author has made an explicit decision to offer a cookbook approach, in which the reader can flip to the page describing a particular technique, without having to refer to other chapters.

I have mixed feelings about this goal. On the one hand, Tyne has definitely accomplished her goal. For any topic covered in this book, you can look it up in the index, turn to the appropriate page, and find instructions detailing exactly how to perform the task. She goes into far too much detail, however. For example, whenever she instructs the reader to select something from a menu or notebook page, she divides the process into two steps: to move the mouse to the proper location and then to click the mouse button. Many pages of the book have these same instructions repeated two or three times. It would be okay to explain at this level of detail once, somewhere near the start of the book. Constant repetition of the obvious, on the other hand, simply strains the reader’s patience.

Furthermore, this book offers no overall introduction to the philosophy of OS/2 or the WPS. Nor does it offer any deep insights, or even discuss any applications. In my opinion, this book contains nothing that is not readily apparent from the online help available from every menu and notebook in OS/2.

The only reader I can imagine who might benefit from this book would be a regular user of some other GUI operating system, who briefly has to perform a task on OS/2 and does not have the time to read the online help. I believe that even such a user would find Tyne’s book to be frustratingly tedious, however.