Customer Reviews

Java Network Programming, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have surveyed a number of Java Networking, distributed computing books. I decided to buy and read this book because it get a great coverage of topics, such as Java Threads, I/O, Socket, HTTP, RMI, CORBA, Messages. If you are developer from C++ or OO background, the topics can be understood in lightspeed. The source code of the book can be easily downloaded and run. The code is clear and reusable in your next Java networking project immediately. In particular, I like the chapter describing how to write a full-feature HTTP server, including serving web pages, executing CGI programs with multi-threading backend. After reading this chapter, all the mystery about web server is dissolved because you can write one by yourselves. This improved the learning curve for great variety of web server. In summary, the book encourage reader to learn and play with the sample codes. You can become a Java networking expert in a week with this book. No one can scare you with another Java networking jargon.

Java Network Programming, Second Edition aims is the sequel to the highly popular Java Network Programming title, and picks up where the original left off. It offers considerably expanded coverage of the Java networking API, for the Java 2 platform. The authors build on chapters from the previous book, adding Java 2 specific methods and classes, and covering newer topics such as servlets, and CORBA (support for which was introduced in the Java 2 platform).

Readers unfamiliar with network programming, and the intricacies of sockets, are guided fairly gently through the process, with a thorough coverage of I/O streams (including files), UDP and TCP sockets, from both client and server perspective. This gives a good grounding for later development, with plenty of example clients and servers. There's also coverage of Java HTTP support, which is quite simple to work through.

That said, readers familiar with the original title may be in for some disappointment. The strong cryptography coverage of the first book has vanished, mentioned only in the preface as the subject of a future book. Not being very cryptographically minded myself, I really enjoyed reading about this topic in the first title.

Nonetheless, with the number of pages in this thick reference, something probably had to go, to save room for other topics.

Newer topics covered in the second edition (or greatly enhanced from coverage in the first edition) include servlets, CORBA, and remote method invocation (RMI). There's even more examples than in the first edition, but there are a few gaps where coverage could have been improved (for example, the new RMI activation features are barely mentioned, and the reader is referred instead to the RMI documentation of Sun). Servlet coverage could really be improved as well - there's some great books out on the market though that can be used in companion with this book Perhaps these, and other topics will be covered in a future addition.

As networking books go, Java Network Programming 2Ed is close to the top, but has room for improvement. Currently, however, you won't find a book that can beat it, but for advanced topics you'll probably need a second title for topics like servlets or distributed computing. -- David Reilly, for the Java Coffee Break

Please dont get carried away by the wonderful reviews for this book by some readers. This is an expensive book but definitely not worth the money. The book should be named Java I/O programming rather than a network related title.

Most of the book deals with Java streams and the network concepts are very few. At some point the book looks like an API reference than a full fledged text. This info is available in Java Docs for free . The font selected for printing the book is a real turn off. Another disaster from Manning .

I will suggest reading Java Network programming title form O'Reilly which is due for release in July 2000 ( do not buy the 1997 edition ).

The book covers numerous topics. For background material, it covers TCP/IP theory, security, threading, exceptions, and streams. In the actual networking part of the book, it covers client-side and server-side networking, URLs, datagrams, multicasting, RMI, CORBA, Servlets, and Message Streams. In other words, there is a wide range of topics covered.

The book is full of actual code examples. I especially enjoyed one like the finger client and the dns client. These are real world examples that will be extremely useful if I ever need to implement these protocols using Java.

One error that I noticed was that it mentioned that the source code from the book was available from two web sites. In reality, at the present time, it is only available from the first one mentioned.

Overall, it is a book that is worth owning and has the broadest coverage of any of the Java networking books on the market.

I bought this book after reading some of the reviews; mostly they are accurate depending on your expectations. The book contains solid examples on many basic network topics such as Multicast, UDP and TCP/IP, etc.

This book will most likely improve your Java Network programming skills, if not, it is a solid reference. I have glanced through a few other networking books, but I thought this book provided more global coverage. There may be better books for specific networking topics, but this book covered a variety of topics well.

I found the book to be very helpful in providing the groundwork for I/O based programming. In my opinion, it is really what you need to learn first (on the basic leve, network I/O is just a different medium). It is not going to make you into an advanced, low-level network programmer, but it is unlikely for a Java book to cover networking to that depth. It will provide a strong resource for most of your networking needs. I would definitely recommend it to someone who has a good understanding of Java wanting to learn network-I/O programming.

While the authors could have taken their discussion of Java networking farther, there is no other book on the market that even comes close to discussing as much as they did. The main reason why I liked this book is chapter 21. It is here where all the ideas in the book come together through the assembly of a working networked Chat/Whiteboard applet. What is very cool about the applet is that it multiplexes data being sent from the whiteboard and chat portions of the applet into one stream that is sent to the server. It also demultiplexes the stream of data coming from the server to either the whiteboard or chat portions of the applet. If you ever implement a networked client, understanding this strategy will pay off. It's also fun to create several whiteboard clients, draw in one of them and watch the other clients display the drawing instantly. Assuming you know the basics of Java programming, this book can get you up to speed on Java Network programming in less than a week.

This is one of the best Java books on the market. Concepts are explained in a clear, succint manner with little extraneous detail that shows the authours mastery of the material. Java is a complex subject, so clear overviews of key areas are very valuable. This book is a must have for every Java Library.

I have not much to add to all the great reviews, but someone there wondered how come people have reviewed this title even before it has been published. Just FYI: Manning publishes most if not all of it's titles as e-book editions long before they come out as paperbacks. Just check out their website and you can already buy the JSP Taglibs books that has not been printed yet. It's available as an e-book.

Awesome coverage of networking and streams. I love their *real* examples. Its different to the other network books i've read. Where else do you learn how to write a real Webserver with CGI support and stuff like that. CORBA coverage was fairly brief but I guess that's not their focus. Can't wait for their crypto book!!

Although some reviewer said the I/O coverage is too much for a networking book, I think it is good to cover that because networking is based on I/O stream, and the coverage of I/O in this book makes you able to write advance java network program with the lowest-level programming technique, i.e. I/O stream (though Java itself is high-level oriented) that makes your application more powerful and your coding smarter. Though not explored deep enough, other broad-ranged topics in this book, with all the excellent real-world examples, will assist you to choose a best method in Java Network API for you implementation.