Customer Reviews

Java Virtual Machine (Java Series)

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

 

 

I know of only one book that covers the JVM and the binary codes, the classfile format etc. It is known as the goldfish bowl book because of its cover, but is officially called The Java Virtual Machine. The book is frustrating because it spends so much time with the irrelevant Jasmin assembler and its syntax. You are interested in generating byte codes directly, not assembler. It leaves out much you must discover by experiment looking at generated class files, such as whether offsets are signed or absolute, where the base is etc. In its next revision, it should set the Jasmin aside in an appendix, and include examples and more precise documentation on the binary formats. The book is still valuable because it gives a fair bit of background exposition you will not find in the vmspec itself. You would use this book to understand the VM, then the vmspec to actually write code that generated or modified class files.

This book provides a good tutorial introduction to the Java Virtual Machine. It even includes an "assembler" so that you can practice writing Java bytecode yourself. Unfortunately, there are no exercises provided so that it takes a great deal of motivation and creativity to write JVM programs that will test your knowledge of the book's material.

But by far the worst problem of this book is that it covers only the very first version of the JVM and the Java language. Now that there are new editions of the JVM spec and language spec, as well as the other JVM tutorial books, the time for updating this book is overdue.

This is a good book for those that are interested in learning the bytecode structure of the Java Virtual Machine and its class file structure. It comes with a bytecode assembler, called Jasmin. Some reviewers felt that the assembler is completely useless. I liked having it as it helped me to learn and test my knowledge of java bytecode without having to write an interpreter first.

This book is misleading, however, as most books on this subject do a pretty good job of explaining the internals of the Java Virtual Machine. This book does not. If you are looking to understand java bytecode and class file format better, this may be your book. But, if you are looking to get the full explaination of the workings of the Java Virtual Machine (especially if you are trying to write your own), then "Inside the Java Virtual Machine" is a much better book.

JAVA Virtual Machine is an impressive technical reference. The book provides a wealth of detailed nuts-and-bolts information relating to Java and the JVM. A Java *assembler*, called "Jasmin", provided with this book makes it especially practical for power programmers.

In spite of a variety of typing errors in the text (it is hard for copy editors to stay on top of technology apparently!), JAVA Virtual Machine is a must for every Java hacker's reference library!

A great book on the Java Virtual Machine! I learned more about how java really works faster than with any of the other fourjava books I own. --Dave Doolin

Although there are only a few books currently discussing about the internal of JVM, this book is the worst of them. It copies too many pages such as the bytecode semantics from the JVM specification by Sun Microsystems and these parts consume around half of the books. Also most contents not borrowed from JVM specification is far too simple to be an indepth discussion of JVM. It only took me 2 hours to read the whole book and to find out that it is a bad book.

If you're just entering the JVM aspects - that's a good place to start, I think. The JVM explained in a simple, not confusing manner, the book can easily be read by anyone. Then you might go to read the full "JVM Spec" from Sun. 4 stars for authors spend too much place describing Jasmin ( JVM assembler they wrote ) - tell me, who needs it ? I hardly imagine anybody writing bytecodes in assembly. *Reading* bytecodes is something else, I do it on a daily base - but let's leave the job of creating them to javac.
One special "thank you" is for "Appendix A" where all JVM instructions are nicely listed by the function group. I browse it the most.

Compering to others books about jvm this one gives you much more details about functionality of jvm. Looking deeply inside structer of jvm less in just instruction.But one unneeded detail is "jasmin" assembler who needs it no practical apply.