Inside the Java Virtual Machine with CDROM (Java Masters) [Paperback]

Bill Venners (Author)

Book Description

Series: Java Masters | Publication Date: September 1997

This text is designed to provide the guidance needed to write more effective code for Java programs and get maximum performance from Java applications. The accompanying CD-ROM contains numerous code examples, as well as interactive illustrations. The appendices offer a complete reference to the JVM bytecodes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For the advanced Java developer, Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine offers a detailed guide to the inner workings of today's Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), plus a complete reference to all bytecodes (the "machine code" for the language). For those who want to understand how Java really works, this book definitely delivers the goods, with excellent technical detail and demos of JVMs in action on the companion CD-ROM.

This title provides a remarkably detailed tour of the internals of the Java platform, with plenty of technical information on the way virtual machines do business under the hood, from the way language statements are turned into bytecodes to in-depth coverage of loading and invoking classes, security, and garbage collection. The author demonstrates superior knowledge of Sun's Java Virtual Machine specification and explains the principles of its design and implementation, including a full explanation of how actual bytecodes are run on a VM. (Surprisingly, variables in Java are always processed on the stack, since there are no general CPU registers available, a very different architecture than most CPUs.) Each chapter includes applets that showcase Java in action (for example, adding two numbers or demonstrating garbage collection).

The later part of this text covers over 200 Java bytecodes (mnemonic instructions for the JVM) by groups, and the book closes with a full listing of these opcodes (with over 150 pages of material). In all, Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine serves as both a tutorial and reference to the architecture and inner operation of JVMs for any technically astute reader who wants to understand how Java really works. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Java Virtual Machine (JVM) class architecture, the Java class loader, tips for platform independence, Java security, verifying class files, code-signing, network mobility, Jini basics, the organization of Java .class files, Java object lifetimes, the linking model, garbage collection basics and algorithms, stack operations, type conversions, integer and floating-point arithmetic, objects and arrays, control flow, exceptions and finally clauses, method invocation, thread synchronization, Java opcode and quickcode reference, and JVM simulation demos. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Before I delve into the structure and content of this book, I would like to mention the aspect of Venners's book that impressed me most of all: the sheer attention to detail and consistent accuracy of his writing. I've reviewed quite a few Java books in the last 12 months, and found that the majority are written by authors who use established terminology in a highly unprofessional, sloppy way. Bill Venners's book lies at the opposite, positive end of the scale: I could almost feel the concentration that went into the wording of every single phrase. Words with technically precise semantics like "type," "reference," "class," "object," and "interface" are used to express their precise, Java-specific meaning -- never in a technically incorrect sense. Because so many Java books are not written to such standards of technical excellence, I urge current and future Java book authors to read Venners's book. -- (Laurence Vanhelsuwe, JavaWorld, March 1998

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Product Details

• Paperback: 579 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0079132480
• ISBN-13: 978-0079132482
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little fluffy., January 21, 2001

By 

Gerard Guillemette (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine (Paperback)

This book is somewhat less terse and succint than other books I've read. I don't have tons of time to read so appreciate short books that get to the point. This book was a little thicker than it needed to be. I like it but "Programming for the Java Virtual Machine" by Engel and O'Reilly's "Java Virtual Machine" are somewhat better books and thinner. PFTJVM has some nice diagrams while JVM has some better explainations on things like exceptions. It might be best to check out these three and pick according to taste.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Long on Words, Short on Details, May 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine (Paperback)

As the author himself states, the first four chapters of the book are merely a "broad overview of Java's architecture". The majority of this material should be familiar to Java programmers. I was so bored that I skipped ahead to chapter five. The next five chapters are a little better, but again much of the material is basic Java architecture including class loading, verification, and garbage collection.

Finally, in chapter ten the author starts describing the bytecode instructions, but many details are glossed over, left out, or just plain wrong. For example, there's almost no description of how the bytecode verifier checks stack operations, and the description of the multianewarray bytecode when the number of dimensions in the bytecode does not match the number of dimensions of the type of the array is completely wrong. If the author had included a bytecode assembler, such as Jasmin, and had provided exercises, these weaknesses would have become readily apparent.

If you're a Java programmer and just want a basic overview of what goes on behind the scenes to allow your Java program to load and run, this book may be adequate. But if you intend on writing a compiler or a JVM, or writing code in bytecode assembly, or just learning what really goes on behind the scenes, I'd recommend one of the other books on the JVM.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for a Java Programmer,Developer or Architect, November 30, 1999

By 

Anuj Goswami - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Java Virtual Machine with CDROM (Java Masters) (Paperback)

This is the best book one can find if one has to understand thoroughly about the Java architecture and its internals.If one goes through this book,the development in Java would be much more efficient and productive and even provide you with solutions which you thought were not possible before through Java(If you have read those run of the mill books in the market on Java programming).Though the book is really indepth I would recommed that one should read atleast the first 9 chapters of this book,especially the chapter on "The lifetime of a Class" and this is some information you will not find anywhere.It also helps in debugging Java programs as it provides you with instruction sets.