Date: 20 Nov 93 18:49 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Complete Guide to Pathworks" by Spencer BKPTHWRK.RVW 931015 CBM Books 101 Witmer Road PO Box 446 Horsham, PA 19044 215-957-4265 215-957-4287 Fax: 215-957-1050 76702.1565@compuserve.com books@propress.com "The Complete Guide to Pathworks", Spencer, 1878956221 The title here is almost justified, but is perhaps just a tad enthusiastic. Although the subtitle does refer to "Pathworks for VMS and DOS," it is a bit of a surprise to find the author extolling the virtues of Pathworks as a means to tie together VMS, DOS, Macs, OS/2, Windows and so forth, and thereafter completely ignoring everything except VMS and DOS. If you are dealing with VMS and DOS only, then this is reasonably complete. Everything you need; installation, cabling, configuration, printing, management, security, troubleshooting, etc.; is in here someplace. You may, however, have to dig for it. The organization is not particularly logical for a tutorial, first telling you how to install it, and only then considering how to set up network cabling. The chapter divisions make sense, though, and as a reference it works just fine. Generally speaking, the level of the material is sufficient to most common use. There will be times when you need additional help. This is particularly true in terms of MS-DOS. The book assumes that readers are well familiar with DOS: the "suggested readings" are primarily directed at getting more help for VMS. On the other hand, some DEC-specific areas are assumed as well. The coverage of DECnet is basically, "Start it and make sure it is set up properly." For most reasonably simple applications, however, this is a basic "one stop" reference for a myriad details to do with the network. Although the average user won't find much helpful here, system managers and technical support staff will likely find it a handy quick guide. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKPTHWRK.RVW 931015 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the Digest DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca