Maximizing .NET Performance (Expert's Voice) [Paperback]

Nicholas J. Wienholt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: November 11, 2003

Maximizing .NET Performance will focus on providing developers and architects with information on performance characteristics of various aspects of the .NET Framework. In addition to providing high-level material on achieving software with good performance characteristics, the book aims to educate readers on the design and implementation of the Framework, and to provide the tools and techniques to allow readers to conduct their own investigation into performance problems.

The dominant feature of the book will be the systematic analysis of performance relating to key Framework topics, like remoting, garbage collection, and threading. Rather than a 'tips and tricks' approach, the book aims to provide a detailed exploration of each topic, and explore the 'whys' and 'by how much' aspects of performance that are often overlooked.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nick Wienholt is an independent Windows and .NET consultant based in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Maximizing .NET Performance, one of the top-selling .NET performance books. Since the book's release, it has ranked among Amazon's top 25 .NET titles. Wienholt was awarded the Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional" award in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and he cofounded the Sydney Deep .NET user group. He also writes technical articles for Australian Developer Journal, ZDNet, Pinnacle Publishing, Developer.com, MSDN Magazine (the Australia and New Zealand Edition), and Microsoft Developer Network. Wienholt is a keen participant in .NET-related newsgroups.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 1 edition (November 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590591410
• ISBN-13: 978-1590591413
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,861,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars .NET Framework Tour from a Performance Perspective, November 14, 2004

By 

Daniel Moth (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maximizing .NET Performance (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

There are no other books on .NET Performance so, when this one fell in my hands, it put a smile on my face (sad, I know). When I got to the end, I was not disappointed. Around 250 well-written pages over 15 chapters and, as you'd expect, you can delve into it in random order, making it a good reference book. Even so, I read it cover to cover. The first two chapters lay the ground; the last chapter provides generic advice on troubleshooting and the 12 chapters in-between focus on specific .NET areas: a framework tour from a performance perspective. Naturally, a subject of this nature assumes the reader has some .NET experience and targets the Intermediate/Advanced level.

Don't expect material on GUI (Windows.Forms), Database (ADO.NET) and Web (ASP.NET); rather a discussion on elements that every application is built on (Type design/implementation, Strings/Text/RegEx, Collections, Language Specifics, GC & Object Lifetime, Exceptions, Security, Threading, IO/Serialisation, PInvoke, CLR). I challenge you to find a chapter that does not teach you at least one thing you were unaware of before. We have to sum it up with the great technical phrase: "It is all great stuff".

There are no axioms presented, and readers expecting a "cookbook" will be disappointed. Every claim is backed up with a reference to a testcase and even then, only after we have delved under the covers to see *why* something is slow or *how* a change makes something faster. By taking this approach, the reader should be able to repeat the investigation/tests for newer/other versions of the framework. So, having just mentioned how there is a cross-reference to specific testcases, I have hinted at what is one of the best contributions of this book: A .NET Benchmark Test Harness. This is described in the appendix of the book and the code/binaries can be obtained from the publisher's site.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Different approach - Weak in some areas, March 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Maximizing .NET Performance (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

My guess is that the reviews written before mine may come from friends of the author. (OK - this is the internet, so I can write an opinion that may or may not be true). The book has some good points but doesn't warrant 5 stars - maybe 3 or 4.

For one, the book refers to examples that are on the apress.com site in compiled code. Very few tables were actually inserted in the book to prove the author's point. Therefore, to really understand what the author is getting at you need to be on a computer able to click through different examples.

I also felt that in some places the introductory information was a bit verbose and sometimes included information that was not relevant to the particular performance improvements being pointed out. I'd have rather the author cut down on some of the .Net overview stuff and put in some more charts.

There were also some things missing that I would have liked to see. For example, XML is slow and there was no discussion on that. Also, some information on tuning the parameters in the machine.config would have been helpful - which affects the loading and of assemblies, for one. But, there wasn't any detailed discussion on this information.

The book takes varying concepts such as remoting, exceptions, and threading and looks at them in a very granular way. It is an interesting approach and the data (partially in the book partially from running the code) is very useful. I haven't seen any other book approach performance in this way, and the book stands out in that regard. However, if the reader is looking for a set bulleted of do's and don'ts - this is not the book for them.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent choice for improving performance in your .NET apps, July 5, 2004

By 

Matthew Skibbs "Matthew Skibbs" (Bothell, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maximizing .NET Performance (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

I just received this book last week and I have been thoroughly impressed by its readability and the abundance of useful tips and techniques contained within it. It presents everything from an overview of white and black box testing methods to improving cross domain apps that utilize remoting. While it is a bit light in some areas, it brings up the major performance degrading issues that most developers will encounter at some point or another. It is an excellent book for the intermediate .NET programmer; Apress once again delivers an excellent book.