Concurrent Programming in Java: Design Principles and Patterns [Paperback]

Within the dozens of techniques and tips offered here, this book accomplishes at least two goals. First, it shows how concurrency is implemented by default within Java, with material on how built-in features (like the synchronized keyword and its memory model) can be expected to perform when dealing with multiple threads. Naturally, the author also covers Java threads themselves (including priorities, scheduling and the like).

Next, much of this book looks at ways to improve performance of concurrent code beyond the simple default strategies. After defining criteria for measuring concurrent code (such as safety and "liveness", a measure of running live threads effectively), the author presents dozens of techniques for letting threads work together safely. For the working Java programmer, coverage of patterns that have been implemented in downloadable java.concurrency package will be the most immediately useful. (Within this nearly encyclopaedic survey, short code snippets are used for every pattern and concept.) Though theoretically written at times, this book offers plenty of ideas and sample code to get you started thinking of ways to improve multithreaded code.

Impressively comprehensive, Concurrent Programming in Java offers a veritable bible of techniques for doing two things at once with threads in Java. It's a worthwhile guide to the state-of-the-art strategies for improving the performance of your Java threads. --Richard Dragan, Amazon.com

Topics covered: Threads and concurrency in Java, design considerations: safety, liveness and performance, Before/After Patterns, layering, adapters, immutability and synchronisation, deadlock, resource ordering, the Java Memory Model and concurrency, using the java.concurrency package, confinement, refactoring for concurrency, mutexes, read-write locks, recovering from failure, notifications, semaphores, latches, exchanges, transactions, one-way messages, worker threads, polling and event-driven I/O, parallelism techniques: fork/join, computation trees and barriers, Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP).

• One of Java's most powerful capabilities is its built-in support for concurrent programming, a design technique in which multiple concurrent activities-threads take place inside a single Java program. Thread programming enables developers to design applications that are more responsive to user demands, faster, and more easily controlled.
• This book offers comprehensive coverage of this vital aspect of the Java language. The book is completely up-to-date with the new thread model that is now incorporated into the most recent version of the Java Virtual Machine. All Java programmers interested in doing concurrent programming must understand these new concepts. The book approaches the topic from a design pattern point of view. It introduces and summarizes Java's concurrency support, shows readers how to initiate, control, and coordinate concurrent activities, and offers numerous recipe-like techniques for designing and implementing Java structures that solve common concurrent programming challenges. Specifically, the book presents important strategies for avoiding the inconsistencies that can crop up in multi-threaded programs, addresses the concept of "liveness"-how to ensure that all threads in use are kept active simultaneously, examines state-dependent action, and demonstrates effective methods for handling user requests in a multi-threaded environment.