Taming Java Threads

Taming Java Threads by Allen Holub is THE best book dealing with Java and threads. Typically you can just pick any O'Reilly book for any subject matter and just assume it is going to be one of the best books out there. That is not the case here - Allen has written a very comprehensive book on threads in Java and covering issues related to multithreaded programming not covered anywhere else.Unlike a lot of people, I got exposed to Allen's writings via. his JavaWorld articles on Threading. That 9 part article offered a great treatment on Java threads and probably was a basis for this book. But the book is far more comprehensive and offers a great understanding of the basics of threads, and how to work with them correctly. This book is very extensive touching on every aspect of multithreading programming including AWT and Swing. This book is a must for anyone programming multithreaded applications in Java.

Nearly a decade ago I had read Alan's 'Compiler Design in C' book, which was a surreal experience in learning from someone's self evident mastery of putting theory to practice. Taming Java Threads does the same for me. There is no other book (I repeat) on the market, on the topic of multithreaded programming in Java, which is as succinct, incisive and authoritative. A LOT MANY MORE people should be following his advise, than actually do.Be warned that the writing style and level of discussion essentially assume that you do have a fair flair for all things Java and Object-Oriented. (Also, from years of suffering sustained abuse, I have become impervious to the opinionated, ideosynchratic approaches of authors living in or near Berkeley, CA. Your digestion may vary. OTOH, I do like authors who pick a problem and systematically club it to death!)My only lament? (;-)) Life would be a lot easier for many of us, if those repetitive copyright statements did not exist. Purely on the merit of his serious contribution here, I am refraining from rating this book based upon my deep disagreemt with his sentiment in this regard. Frankly, I wonder what I would be able to do, or not, if many other books in my book shelf had taken the same approach. Remove them in the 2nd edition, please.Typesetting is very bland. (Hey, pick up some TeX, Alan!)-a

Of all the topics a programmer learns, it's been my experience that the two most complex topics are recursion, and multi-threading. Both require a different way of thinking about software, very much out-of-the-box thinking. So if threads are getting you down, Taming Java Threads is the book for you. In Taming Java Threads, you'll learn how threads work, by examining practical applications that demonstrate key topics and which are backed up by theory. You'll learn about topics like mutex and lock management, timer threads, synchronization, and thread pools. The range of topics will interest both a beginner and an expert. But to my mind, the most important topic was GUIs and threads. Older books on threads completely neglect topics like GUI design and Swing -- yet as Allen Holub shows in Taming Java Threads, threads are essential to the Swing event-dispatch queue, and a knowledge of threads is required to prevent unresponsive GUIs. The important information contained within these chapters should be required reading for Java developers. Without it, you'll write applications that can stall and freeze. Taming Java Threads is a great guide to thread programming. If there is one flaw in the book I detected, it was that it failed to cover non-blocking I/O as an alternative to threads. Whether you've just learning Java programming, or you want to hone up on your thread theory, this is the book for you. -- David Reilly for the Java Coffee Break

Great treatment of Java threads. Not a rehash of the API, but actual useful information on how to use threads to do work. I particularly like the object-oriented perspective of the examples. As one reviewer complains, the code is not in the public domain, but if you buy this book for the code, you're shortchanging yourself. There's much to learn here. Holub does a great job of explaining threads, locking, and their use in an object-oriented system.

A book like this is overdue. It fills the gap between dry academic books on concurrency and light-weight books that just repeat the spec. The book is directed at experienced java programmers who want to do threads the right way. It addresses how to solve classic deadlock and synchronization problems with extremely practical java code and techniques. This book is clearly written and it contains lots of well documented code. If you write threaded code, you should get this book.