For the advanced Java developer,
Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine offers a detailed guide to the inner workings of today's Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), plus a complete reference to all bytecodes (the `machine code` for the language). For those who want to understand how Java really works, this book definitely delivers the goods, with excellent technical detail and demos of JVMs in action on the companion CD-ROM.
This title provides a remarkably detailed tour of the internals of the Java platform, with plenty of technical information on the way virtual machines do business under the hood, from the way language statements are turned into bytecodes to in-depth coverage of loading and invoking classes, security, and garbage collection. The author demonstrates superior knowledge of Sun's Java Virtual Machine specification and explains the principles of its design and implementation, including a full explanation of how actual bytecodes are run on a VM. (Surprisingly, variables in Java are always processed on the stack, since there are no general CPU registers available, a very different architecture than most CPUs.) Each chapter includes applets that showcase Java in action (for example, adding two numbers or demonstrating garbage collection).
The later part of this text covers over 200 Java bytecodes (mnemonic instructions for the JVM) by groups, and the book closes with a full listing of these opcodes (with over 150 pages of material). In all, Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine serves as both a tutorial and reference to the architecture and inner operation of JVMs for any technically astute reader who wants to understand how Java really works. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Java Virtual Machine (JVM) class architecture, the Java class loader, tips for platform independence, Java security, verifying class files, code-signing, network mobility, Jini basics, the organization of Java .class files, Java object lifetimes, the linking model, garbage collection basics and algorithms, stack operations, type conversions, integer and floating-point arithmetic, objects and arrays, control flow, exceptions and finally clauses, method invocation, thread synchronization, Java opcode and quickcode reference, and JVM simulation demos.
User review
it stinks
so many pages, and so little stuff. what a waste of time and money!
User review
Good to decorate your shelves
This book spends too much paper explaining the Java history and why it is a good programming language. It is very, very boring. The advanced stuff begins after chapter 3, but they are not well explained. Well, all I can say is I really regret having bought this book, and I do not recommend it to any expirienced and short-in-time Java programmer like me.
User review
Useful - But No In Depth Coverage
The book covers many abstract concepts, but it is hard to understand what something abstract means without a concrete example. Implementation of the heap, object layout, etc. is difficult to conceptualize without a real example. I would have been happy if this book discussed the VM as it does now with a running commentary on the Sun Win32 JVM implementation.
User review
A bit disappointed
This book is mostly a rehashing of the Java Virtual Machine Specification (which is available online from Sun, or in printed form). I found its reference section to be slightly less intuitively-organized than the JVM spec, and the rest of the book didn't really add a lot of new insight, beyond a semi-guided tour of the Java Class File format. I would've like a much more detailed tour of the really interesting JVM elements: locking/synchronization implementation, JITs, threads, and advanced garbage collection implementations. There's a lot of active research into JVM design, but not a drop of it can be found in here, sadly.
User review
A little fluffy.
This book is somewhat less terse and succint than other books I've read. I don't have tons of time to read so appreciate short books that get to the point. This book was a little thicker than it needed to be. I like it but `Programming for the Java Virtual Machine` by Engel and O'Reilly's `Java Virtual Machine` are somewhat better books and thinner. PFTJVM has some nice diagrams while JVM has some better explainations on things like exceptions. It might be best to check out these three and pick according to taste.
