Server-Side Programming Techniques (Java(TM) Performance and Scalability, Volume 1) (Paperback)

by Dov Bulka (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Written for the working programmer who wants to get more speed out of Java, Java Performance and Scalability, Volume 1 bundles several dozen tips for faster and smaller Java code. Backed up by benchmarks of what works and what doesn't, this book provides essential wisdom for eliminating some common bottlenecks to Java performance.

The 48 optimizations for various aspects of the Java API make up the heart of this text. Early sections look at a particularly tricky subject--string processing--giving you several techniques for increasing speed and reducing object creation. The in-depth examination of the costs and benefits of string concatenation and the immutability of Java String objects will help you uncover possible hot spots that cause lagging performance with strings.

Subsequent sections look at more general strategies for faster programs, like purging obsolete code, and the well-known 80-20 rule (optimizing the 20 percent of your code that consumes 80 percent of processing time, allowing you to create faster software; this book shows you how). Short tips on such APIs as Java collections and the Java Native Interface (JNI) come next.

The second half of the book zeros in on better server-side performance with tips on caching and file I/O. The guide to multithreading and synchronization is a standout here. You'll get several smart tips for speeding up servlets, such as precomputing your standard strings for headers and other boilerplate HTML. The book closes with a valuable custom class for JDBC database connection pooling and a custom HTTP server. Both samples make use of the techniques presented earlier in the text. Even if you don't adopt every suggestion, the ideas here can get you thinking about performance in new ways. (One of the main points of this book is that you can write faster custom code, instead of always relying on built-in Java classes and APIs.)

Clearly, Java performance is not something that happens by accident; it must be engineered into your code. This compilation of useful techniques and tips deserves a close look by anyone who wants to squeeze more performance out of Java. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to Java performance
• More efficient Java string handling (optimizing String, StringBuffer, and StringTokenizer objects)
• Reducing Java overhead
• Faster initialization
• The 80-20 rule for optimization
• Getting rid of obsolete code
• Speeding up the JDK 1.1 Vector and Hashtable collection classes
• Caching techniques
• Optimizing file I/O and buffering
• Object recycling and object pools
• Techniques for multithreading and synchronization
• Amdahl's law and scalability basics
• Pros and cons of using the Java Native Interface (JNI)
• Hints for optimizing Remote Invocation Method (RIM) calls
• Performance hints for servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSPs)
• Custom sample code for JDBC database connection pooling and a Java HTTP server

Product Description
This book was written with one goal in mind: to provide Java programmers with the expertise needed to build efficient, scalable Java code. The author shares his experience in server-side performance tuning through measured performance assessments, called optimizations. Each optimization discusses techniques to improve the performance and scalability of your code. Every claim is substantiated with hard numbers and an experience-based evaluation. Java(TM) Performance and Scalability, Volume 1, provides invaluable advice that you will, no doubt, find useful in your coding. Presented in 48 concise lessons that target the most common and critical performance pitfalls, this book offers a plethora of practical tips and solutions for boosting the performance of your programs. These lessons cover performance-critical areas such as memory management, garbage collection, caching, and multithreading. Specific lessons include:

Reserving StringBuffer capacity

Avoiding premature object creation

Creating an efficient vector class

Designing caching into your API

The cost of synchronization

Parallel subtasks

JNI efficiency

Varying the server workload and RMI network plumbing

Using ServletOutputStream

Caching JDBC connections In addition to providing hard numbers that quantify the optimizations, the author concludes the book with an application demonstrating the effectiveness of the performance optimizations. The exercise takes a typical program and increases its performance fourfold through a series of steps that tie together the lessons learned throughout the book. He offers both the means and the proof to better coding.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (June 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201704293
• ISBN-13: 978-0201704297
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,499,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Professional Java programmers must read this book, June 7, 2000

By	Joshua Engel (Laurel, Md USA) - See all my reviews

I was very skeptical when I picked up this book, because most authors on Java performance don't seem to have actually tested their theories. Dov Bulka, however, has included charts demonstrating actual performance gains. He's also shown how some kinds of purported optimizations _don't_ have a measurable effect, which is an excellent way of knowing what to avoid.

The author never compromises software engineering or program correctness in the pursuit of performance. His suggestions are practical and applicable to a wide variety of programs. The book is also well-written, clear, and a joy to read.

As the subtitle says, it's primarily about server-side processing. It's not going to tell you how to scroll tables faster, nor is it going to tell you to use a quicksort instead of a bubble sort. Still, every Java programmer should know how this author goes about working with Java performance, because it's a great framework for making improvements.

The book claims to be volume 1. I'm really looking forward to volume 2.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for Advanced Developers., July 24, 2000

By	Vincent O'Sullivan (London, England.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Books on how to write code in Java are ten-a-penny now. Until a new version of java comes out, we don't really need anymore. What we do need though, are more books like this.

If anyone using Java across a network, using either servlets or EJBs, there is a dearth of information. There are a couple of excellent goods on how to get going but little opportunity to broaden the scope once the basics of these technologies have been covered.

This book is a very welcome addition to the Java Server-side bibliography. The information on optimisation and increasing efficiency of communication contains a lot I haven't come across elsewhere.

For anyone who already has a copy of (for example) 'Inside Servlets' or 'Mastering EJBs', this is an extremely useful volume for consolidating the skills gained from them.

Java has an often justified reputation for being slow but often it is the result of its not being applied in the best way. The demonstrations of how to optimise code (and to quantify those benefits) make this book an invaluble weapon for advanced and serious developers.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worth browsing only, August 16, 2000

By	Gary Zuo (NY United States) - See all my reviews

It's only worth spending an hour or so browsing.

Most tricks are well known to experienced Java developers, such as using StringBuffer instead of String. And the book is too rambling. You can easily cut the pages in half. Often chunks of code is repeated with just a method name change, e.g. from println() to print().

Although it's claimed to be "Server-Side", it's really weak in that area. Sections on RMI and serialization are trivial and not to the point. The chapter on Servlet is not convincing.