Customer Reviews

Java Distributed Computing (O'Reilly Java)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Although many reviewers were not statisfied by this book, I do not think it is that bad as they have described.In my opinion it is useful enough for people who are just getting into the distributed java programming. But if anyone is searching a specialized book for a certain topic like RMI or CORBA certainly he will be disappointed. I can say that it is quite instructive (specially chapter 3, distributed object) and gives a general idea, it will give you the sense of the distributed applications. I am very convinced that beginners/students will find helpful areas in it.

Finally it is for BEGINNERS/INTEMEDIATE (exclusive)

Java Distributed Computing is a good first look at distributed computing but is not an authoritative or comprehensive distributed programming reference.

The book is in the classic O'Reilly style. The book is overtly technically oriented and describes distributed programming from a strictly technical perspective.

The book has several examples of distributed programs. When the priciples of the examples are understood fully, the examples can be applied to real world problems. Unfortunately, the connection between understanding fully and applying the priciples is not presented effectively.

The chapters include a good chapter on networked threads and a good chapter on security.

The RMI and CORBA coverage is limited. This is unfortunate and a major shortcoming of the book since both of these protocols, especially RMI, are by default distributed systems. Way too much time is spent with messaging systems which are not appropriate for many advanced distributed applications. Actually, this book was not much different in scope from Java Networking and Communications -- also from O'Reilly.

In general, this book will give you quite a good overview of distributed Programming in Java. It covers many subjects from sockets to security. Some of the subjects like sockets and RMI are explained fairly well, but others that are complex like CORBA and Security are not explained in detail. The nice part about this book is that it gives a good overview of most API's and subjects related to Distributed Computing in Java. For people, looking for a clear book with lots of examples and details on this subject, this book is NOT for you. This book is not excatly EASY to read and its definately NOT full of examples, BUT if you are patient enough while reading, you will learn quite a lot from this book. I also warn you that you may need to read other books on some subjects in this book like CORBA to be able to understand them well. In conclusion, if you are a newbie that wants to learn distributed programming in Java I suggest that you buy this book ALONG with another one that is clear and easy.

Do not buy this book. The code is full of bugs and does not appear to be tested by the author. You will spend ... and waste many hours trying to get the code to complie. The code is not very well explained in the text. Overall, the book is very disappointing, and really a huge waste of time.

O'Reilly have a big turkey here. Save your money - buy something else.

I lost a lot of time reading this poor book and trying to run incomplete code. The line followed by the author is very confusing. He is always trying to approach a lot of things at the same time. I think a better help with working examples would be Java Distributed Objects by Richard Soley. I would give a zero-star review for this.

I've found this book very helpful. I'd recommend it highly. Be warned, though, pull the examples from the FTP site, since there seem to be a lot of corrections in there.

There's some interesting stuff in the earlier examples, but the last few on different kinds of applications were the most helpful to me. I grabbed the RMI code from the mediator/collaborator examples and I used them in some projects of my own. Very cool!

For someone trying to get into distributed computing in general, this book is a great way to start. The text is easy to read, and gets right to the point. The code examples are well-chosen. And the online code actually works - I've used some of it to "jump-start" a few pet projects.

Note bene: If you're looking for a reference book on all the distributed computing APIs, this ain't it. If you get heavy into CORBA or RMI, you'll want to buy a good reference book on either of these. But this O'Reilly book gives a great overview of the lay of the land, and I tend to use it now and then as a reference on the basic stuff that you always forget (like, "How do those ServerSockets work again?").

Well worth the money.

The only good thing I have to say about this book is that it has a very nice cover with a very nice picture on it...! The book's aim is to cover different relevant topics in making distributed systems - e.g. CORBA, RMI, Security, Message-passing systems, Databases (JDBC), Bandwith-Limited Systems and Collaborative Systems. The topics are indeed relevant - but unfortunately the author only scratches their surfaces. The topics mentioned above are *covered* through badly commented examples. Often there is only an extremely superficial discussion of the described topics; thus the book doesn't give the reader an overall understanding. Furthermore it is very hard to separate relevant things from unimportant ones in the examples. The examples are (most of the time) not supported by diagrams (e.g. UML) - which makes it very time-consuming to figure out how they work - and the author doesn't describe why he chooses the design-decisions he does. To be fair, I did find *some* useful information. But the information/time spend reading is very low.

The people below slamming this book should have taken the time to finish reading it. After reading the first two or three chapters, I thought it was pretty weak (and there are a few bizarre tangents the author takes in there, too). But the book as a whole is very good, especially the later chapters and the downloadable source code (how nice to have code that actually works!).

The book seems to be written in a hurry and only scratches the surface of important concepts. The choice of the examples to support the concept being explained are bad. I guess the author tried to tell too much and lost focus too many times.