Abstract :
This book treats the difficult topic of "operating systems" in a somewhat novel manner–one which is not necessarily suggested by its title. The "pragmatic approach" amounts to basing the descriptions virtually entirely in the context of two very widely used operating systems: IBM\´s OS/MVT and IBM\´s TSS/360. As an expositional framework, these two systems certainly provide a surfeit of material–there are literally stacks of it in a large number of machine rooms throughout the country. Katzan culls and organizes this material in a manner which surely demonstrates that it\´s been culled and organized, but less surely demonstrates any significant extraction of the essences of OS\´s. The material is not, however, without its good points even though, in most instances, they are hard to discern from the jargon jungle which seems to be de regle when speaking of operating systems.
