Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs [Hardcover]

Jeff Magee (Author), Jeff Kramer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471987107 | ISBN-13: 978-0471987109 | Publication Date: April 16, 1999

Concurrency is an area of software design that is vital in a wide range of applications where responsiveness are issues. They are especially important in the development of control systems. By their nature, concurrent programs are more complex, and therefore more difficult to reason than sequential programs. In order to ensure a thorough understanding of concurrency, concepts, techniques and problems are presented in many forms, through informal descriptions and illustrative examples, abstractly in models, and concretely in Java.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this well written book [...] will be useful to those designing distributed systems" --Computing Reviews, June 2000

From the Back Cover

Concurrent Programs are notoriously difficult to get right. This book provides a systematic and practical approach to designing, analyzing and implementing concurrent programs. Concurrency concepts and techniques are introduced and illustrated using both state models and Java programs. The design models enable concurrent behavior to be animated, mechanically analyzed and then implemented in programs. With good support for concurrency, Java provides an ideal implementation language. Examples ranging from automobile cruise control to a game of space invaders are used throughout to motivate and illustrate the models and programs. Modeling is supported by a visual and interactive method for reasoning about design features. Programming is supported by interactive applets for experimenting with concurrent programs. This book and the CD-ROM which accompanies it provide readers with the means for understanding the fundamentals and practice of concurrency. Topics covered include:
* threads and interaction
* interference, exclusion and synchronization
* deadlock, safety and liveness properties
* message passing
* concurrent software architectures
* dynamic and timed systems.
The accompanying CD-ROM contains: the software analysis tools for modeling concurrency, model animation and model checking; the full set of state models, Java examples and demonstration programs; and a comprehensive series of overhead slides for course presentation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471987107
• ISBN-13: 978-0471987109
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,389,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is could be a classic CS book, December 3, 1999

By 

Robert Fielding - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs (Hardcover)

This book does not belong with other Java books. This is a real computer science textbook that should be sitting next to Rivest's Algorithms book. The use of Java is incidental and makes the book very accessible without detracting from the issues at hand. It has to be one of the most well conceived computer science books ever written.

The material covered is maddeningly difficult to master informally because concurrency errors often manifest themselves as rare, random, and disastrous events that cannot be reproduced. Most of the book is laying down a solid formal foundation in which to reason about concurrency; the only hope for getting it right when things are difficult. It also comes with analysis tools (in Java of course!) to help people who learn by exploration, experimentation, and visualisation.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Textbook on Concurrency Theory and Practice, April 20, 1999

By 

Wolfgang Emmerich ([e-mail]) (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs (Hardcover)

I have used Magee and Kramer's book (or rather their manuscript) twice in the UG programme of the Dept. of Computer Science at University Collge London. I used it to teach a 30 hours course on Concurrency to final year BSc students in Computer Science.

The book is very appealing for several reasons:

Firstly, it is the only available book that provides an engineering discipline to concurrency. It covers both a sound introduction to the theory of concurrency and practical guidelines how to design concurrent programs using the UML and Java.

Secondly, the book is nicely written indeed. The concepts are well motivated, the intriguingly difficult theory of concurrency is well explained and the book is full of examples that show both theory and practice of Concurrency.

Thirdly, the book is not only a book; it's a nicely boundled package. It comes with Java demonstration applets that I used to visualize concurrency concepts, such as Monitors, Mutual Exclusion and Fairness in the class room. Moreover, the book includes a CD with a tool that students (and professors) can use for modelling and model checking purposes. The tool implements labelled transition systems analysis and supports visualization of label transition system execution. Finally the web site that accompanies the book is full of exercises and exam questions and model answers are available too.

Using this material was a truly positive experience.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concurrency for the new millenium, September 27, 1999

By 

Judith Bishop ([e-mail]) (South Africa and Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs (Hardcover)

I have also used this book in manuscript form for two years at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and am now using it in Victoria, Canada. In both cases, the book forms the introductory part to a larger course on object-oriented distributed systems.

Without this book the students would be lost in the mire of COM, RMI, CORBA etc and learn no principles to carry them through after graduation. Magee and Kramer package up the classical Hoare CSP in such a way that it is palatable, easy to use, and really illustrates difficult points to students on-line. Students say the course is fun. It is fitting that this book should appear just as Tony Hoare retires from Oxford. Magee and Kramer show how concurrency should be done in the new millenium.

Just one word of warning: there are five notations to master in the book: FSP modelling, LTS diagrams, UML diagrams, structure diagrams and Java. I found that being forewarned on this aspect helped me explain the need for all of them to students.