Written by members of the CICS development team, O'Reilly's latest release, Designing and Programming CICS Applications introduces new users of IBM's mainframe (OS/390) to CICS features. Experienced users will learn how to integrate existing mainframe systems with newer technologies, including the Web, CORBA, Java, CICS clients, and Visual Basic; as well as how to link MQSeries and CICS.

"Although CICS systems have been running for more than thirty years, CICS has changed dramatically during that time," says author John Horswill. "Traditional CICS skills and techniques that have delivered results for decades are still just as relevant for building high-speed transaction processing applications, but new CICS techniques can be used as well, to exploit advanced technologies such as Java, Web, MQseries, and workstation tools."

Whether developers have thousands of terminals or a client/server environment with workstations and LANs exploiting modern technology such as graphical interfaces or multimedia, Designing and Programming CICS Applications gives them the power to create, modernize, and extend CICS applications.

"My compliments to all who contributed to this book. Trying to distill a huge amount of information into that which is essential, was no easy task. I think that the new book will be a valuable contribution to the future of CICS and related IBM product strategies. But more importantly, the book will assist probably thousands of customers and IBM field personnel with better understanding CICS and related technologies." -Bob Yelavich, CICS Consultant

"It's fantastic. If you knew all the contents you would be very well educated." -Clare Jackson, CICS Team, IBM Hursley Laboratory

• Chapter 7, Programming the CICS Java Component, is available free online.

• More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples.

• A cover graphic in jpeg format.