Reilly describes the portion of the 32-bit operating system that is common to Windows32, Windows 95, and Windows NT. The book starts by analyzing the meaning of the expression “client/server” and points out that these are not two precisely defined entities: there is a continuous spectrum of possible configurations. Next is an extensive description of the best way to use such a system for information retrieval; this discussion includes an analysis of the virtues of B-tree search strategies. A pervasive topic throughout the book is the importance of connectivity and the need to insure compatibility between databases, servers, and clients. The two most common standards--Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Integrated Database Applications Programming Interface (IDAP), emanating from Microsoft and Borland--are described well.

Following these introductory chapters, Reilly details the individual components of a complete system--human, hardware, and software. The topics covered in depth are Btrieve and Structured Query Language (SQL). In all cases, the text is accompanied by well-written C/C++ code that illustrates the necessary programming methods.

Next, the author considers the problem of integrating modern networks with legacy programs and systems, the latter being mainframe machines. The example chosen is an IBM AS/400, a Novell SAA or Microsoft SNA server, and the problems of EBCDIC coding.

Novell NetWare and the NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) are analyzed next, and a number of appropriate API tricks are discussed. The material presented includes large sections of C/C++ code. This section also discusses programming tools, including the Microsoft RPC kit, Access, and Visual Basic; Borland’s Delphi and Visual Pascal; and Powersoft’s PowerBuilder.

The book ends with a discussion of WINSOC sockets, familiar to all Internet users, and a look at the future. There are two appendices. One deals with an ODBC C++ class and the other is a good bibliography of recommended books, remarkable for the fact that we are actually told what the books are about.

The index is good, but an additional glossary of acronyms would have been helpful. Included with the book is a 3.5-inch disk with nearly 5 Mb of LHARC compressed code examples. (LHARC is a high-performance file compression program.) The examples cover all the significant code given in the text and will be very helpful to users. A number of executables are also included, but these require the presence of Microsoft or Borland visual compilers.

I strongly recommend this text for experienced programmers who wish to get into network programming. It might also be useful as a reference for advanced undergraduate computer science students.