No real need for this book
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I guess my main gripe about this book is that it doesn't fulfil any clear need. It contains a little about threads, a little about networking, some stuff on RMI, security issues, JDBC etc. All these topics are addressed elsewhere by O'Reilly, and in general rather better. I hoped the book might be about something funky like autonomous agents but it's not. So if you don't know much about the above topics you'll learn a thing or two, otherwise it doesn't really cover any new territory. Another reader has commented on the poor quality of the examples. I would echo this. They're sketches in general, and not very clear. I think O'Reilly should retire this one.
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Good overview/introduction - Poor on detail
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As an introductory tutorial, this is a good book. However, once you want to advance from there to actually implement anything, unless you are confident of your understanding of (say) CORBA, the lack of concrete detail and expansive explanation will prove frustrating. Placing the JavaSoft Java tutorial texts alongside it (which are freely available) will certainly give you a good overall solution, but I suspect that this book needs to be bigger and (in content terms) deeper to really move beyond "Average". As a reference, one star, as an overview, 4 stars and as a tutorial, 3. Overall, three stars - but you'll need to buy a more detailed partner (or use the Java Tutorial material) at the same time.
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Good intro to distributed programs but lacks cohesiveness
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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.
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Great book to begin distributed Java programming with.
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I needed to get into distributed progamming with Java and found this book to be a very good entry into the topic. Like the reviewer below noted, it only scratches the surface of each of the topics it discusses. This is fine for someone that is just getting into distributed programming...you can read on all the different methods of distributed programming in Java and then figure out which will be best for your application. Once you've mastered the topic of your choice to the level that this books gets into, you'll most certainly want to pick up another book that is more in-depth on what you are trying to do. For example, I used the book to examine Corba, RMI, and message-based systems. I decided to choose RMI as the best method in my circumstance...I wrote several sample apps using RMI following the examples in the book. Once I felt comfortable with this, I went out and bought a Java book on RMI.
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A very nice "entry-level" book
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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.
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