[.ca] Programmable Logic Controllers (ISBN 0130955655)

Nice text:
This book explains the basics of PLCs including addressing and programming instructions as well as installation requirements. It has been a great help in my PLC classes.

Making a dense subject more complicated than it has to be:
I'm just finishing up my 2nd semester of PLC class using this book as our textbook. So, I and my classmates have spent a good deal of time trying to learn PLCs with this book as our primary reference text. In that time we've found several mistakes in the book and I've noticed that the index often lists the 1st mention of a topic but not any further instances of when the topic comes up later in the book. This is really unfortunate because often it's the 2nd or 3rd instance of a topic coming up that really has the most comprehensive description of the topic. For quickly looking up programming instructions, this flaw in the index makes it very hard to use, even though there's often more data in the book than is at first evident. While Morriss goes into detail about many common and some obscure programming instructions relating to popular PLCs by Allen Bradley, Siemens and Omron there's very little that would help a novice really appreciate just what all a PLC can do. For an introductory text, I feel that there are probably lots of better choices. Advanced users probably won't find too much here that they haven't already encountered elsewhere. Where this book does fit in, is as a kind of intermediary text for the person who is already familiar with PLCs but wants to know specific addressing of commands relating to a handful of very common PLCs.As such, it's probably a pretty decent book. It's clear that Morriss knows a lot about his subject, but he has a hard time conveying that knowledge to folks just beginning to learn about PLC capabilities. Where I really found the book lacking was in communicating when, and under what circumstances various commands would be desireable to use. If this book had a re-write with more clear examples, more relation to problem solving and a much more comprehensive index, it would be much easier to use and understand.