sqrz,
You are creative. Its been a long day. I have been trying to pick out a new text book today. In order to make what I hope is the best choice, I have to read a large part of each book. Trust me, there are bad books out there.
The list you posted in the other thread looks very familure. There is a lot of information covered in that list, and at best it should be broken down into workable sections. You appear to have done that with this thread, so I jumped a little fast.
Rack mounted PLC's usually have a lot more capability both in choices of processor (RAM/ROM/COMs and the like)and in I/O - COM cards. PLC5 is an excelent example of a Rack mounted system.
When I think self contained, I think of the old SLC100 series. It is all in one package, very little expandability. Limited in I/O, and very little communications options, if any.
Do a search for the AB PLC5 and the SLC100. Compairing the results should help.