Multithreaded Programming with Java Technology (Sun Microsystems Press Java Series) [ペーパーバック]

The authors show bias towards Solaris, and they spend a great amount of time focusing on how you can get the right number of LWPs on Solaris.

If I'm buying a Java book, I'm programming to the Java VM and could care less if Digital Unix gives you one light-weight process per CPU plus one for each outstanding system call. I also don't care about making native calls to the OS under Solaris.

The introduction suggests that multitheading offers increased speed by running on Parellel hardware. I think what people are really looking for is increased responsiveness. Most computers are single-CPU.

The authors are experts in their areas, and they do cover eventually cover multithreading in a no-nonsense manner, with the target audience being the advanced programmer. Don't be annoyed by thier constantly saying, "no, you don't want to do that. Don't do that", and then telling you why in a few more chapters.

I have been highly disappointed. This body of work for this book is primarly a rushed port of the authors other title - named, funnily enough Multithreaded Programming with PThreads.

The Java topics seem to be bolted on as an after-thought - and makes the book read and present very badly. For example a good amount of examples are presented in C not Java, demonstrating POSIX threading!

The author is also in the bad habit of presenting material out-of-order, so that the reader has to wait sometimes 50 pages for clarification. This does not breed suspense, merely frustation at the disorder.

The low-level OS technical coverage is quite adequate - with a good explanation of LWP and POSIX threading (if only this is what I bought the book for!).

The author is clearly a C type who has come to Java and tries to basically recreate the semantics of C POSIX threading in Java... while at the same time constantly drifting back to a topic that he is clearly more comfortable with - PThreads.

This is hardly an embracing approach for a book with the word Java in the title - an obvious cash-in on the behalf of the publisher, Prentice Hall.

Do not buy this book.

If you are looking for a solid beginner book on Java threading (or threading in general), I highly recommend Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs. This is the second threading book I read and I highly recommend it if your goal is to _understand_ thread theory and problems. It approaches the subject in a very rigorous manner and models all concepts using finite state machines and then showing the Java source code.

If you are already comfortable with basic threading concepts and some systems programming then I would recommend the Multithreaded Programming with Java Technology.

I deducted a star because of a few annoying typos and for a few convoluted sections.