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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book on principles of distributed computing, 2 April 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming (Hardcover)
In contrary to the review titled "Collection of Trivialities and nonsense" (which by the way appears to be a pretty unserious review), my impression of this book is really good and for me stands out as one of the best books covering the basic principles of (reliable) distributed computing!
As a Ph.d. student in computer science, I have read numerous scientific articles covering various sporadic topics of distributed computing. With this book, I have finally found a concise collection covering the fundamental principles of distributed computing from which one can comprehend the nature of this highly interesting and complex reseach field.
In an understandable and interesting language, the book first covers the basic abstractions and assumptions used throughout the book (and in the literature in general), and then goes on to using these when presenting the basic mechanisms in this field, such as relieable broadcast, shared memory, consensus etc.
In addition, the book is very well written (with a sense of humour) and uses numerous illustrative exemplifications to demonstrate concepts or important points. At the end of each chapter, the book includes both historical notes that are both interesting and informative on the evolution of this specific topic, and prsents a number of challenging exercises to further develop one's skills in this exciting research area.
To summerize, the book is really worth reading for people having interest in or wanting to learn about the art of distributed computing (regardless of bachelor, master or Ph.d. level) and thus I highly recommend it!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
good introductory textbook on reliable distributed computing, 19 April 2006
This review is from: Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming (Hardcover)
I've used this book for my students in an introductory course in Distributed Systems this year. I've tried with other books in the past but I ended up with the necessity of providing my students with simpler material because existing textbooks in distributed systems are pretty difficult to understand for beginners without any grasp on the field. I've noticed with some relief that students this year were pretty happy about this book, they find the book clear and useful. I believe that this book provides students with simple techniques on how to design a distributed algorithm and gives an immediate understanding of fundamental concepts and principles of distributed computing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great alternative to existing textbooks, 1 April 2006
This review is from: Introduction to Reliable Distributed Programming (Hardcover)
Stating that this is a book full of trivialities and nonsense as one reviewer did so far, can only reflect a miscomprehension of what distributed systems are all about. There are many aspects that need to be dealt with when learning about distributed systems. Algorithms is one of them, and this book does a great job in explaining how and where they fit in. There are only a few truly good books on distributed algorithms, but coming from the systems world, my main objection to most of them is that they pay poor attention to mapping abstract descriptions to real programs. Guerraoui and Rodrigues manage to find the right balance between theory and practice. Every time they describe one of those fundamental algorithms, a student should be able to easily see how the algorithm can be implemented in a real distributed system. Moreover, by following an approach by which algorithms are stacked one on top the other, it should be evident how even complex algorithms map to the real world. Both authors are known in the scientific community for their excellent theoretical work, but have also gained a reputation of being able to put their money where their mouth is: they implement distributed systems. This book reflects this rare ability of being able to capture theory and practice. The authors focus on reliable distributed programming, and discuss the topics one would expect: consensus, broadcast, ordered delivery, failure models, and so on. My only objection is that I wished they hadn't called it programming. To my opinion, it's more than that: it's all about distributed algorithms. In conclusion: any person who is seriously interested in distributed systems or algorithms should check out this book. You will not be disappointed.
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