Addison-Wesley - Java Concurrency LiveLessons

The confluence of multi-core and distributed-core processors, inexpensive mass storage, ubiquitous connectivity, and commodity software platforms is driving the need for software engineers and programmers who understand how to develop concurrent software for client devices that connect to cloud computing platforms. Despite many improvements in processors, storage, and networks, however, developing quality software on-time and on-budget remains hard. Moreover, developing high-quality concurrent software apps and reusable services is even harder.
This Java Concurrency LiveLessons describes by example how to apply patterns and frameworks to alleviate the complexity of developing concurrent software via the use of object-oriented design techniques and Java programming language features and class libraries. Many Java application examples are used throughout the course to showcase pattern-oriented design and programming techniques for concurrent software.


Lesson 1: Overview of Java Concurrency
The first lesson presents an overview of concurrency and concurrent programming in Java. This lesson first explores the motivations for concurrency and then outlines key layers in the Java architecture, focusing on how these layers support the needs of concurrent programs on a range of computing devices. Next, the lesson shows how the benefits of concurrency make it worth the time and effort needed to master the complexities of concurrent programming in Java. This lesson focuses primarily on concepts, although it does show several examples of concurrent Java code to illustrate key points.
Lesson 2: Java Threading Mechanisms and Frameworks
Lesson 2 covers how to develop concurrent programs, the computations of which run simultaneously on one or more processor cores. This lesson first focuses on the mechanisms that Java provides to create, control, and terminate multiple threads, which are the units of computation that can be scheduled to run concurrently within a process. After covering the basics of Java threads, the lesson delves deeper into their structure and functionality, focusing on the key states in their lifecycle and showing how to manage them effectively. Finally, the lesson covers the powerful services provided by the Java Executor framework, which decouples the creation and management of threads from the rest of the application logic. This framework also supports a range of fixed and variable-sized thread pools that run efficiently on modern multicore processors. Throughout this lesson, viewers see how concurrent Java applications and frameworks are developed by applying many Gang of Four and POSA patterns.
Lesson 3: Java Synchronization Mechanisms
Lesson 3 covers the capabilities that Java provides to ensure interactions between threads running computations concurrently occur in the right order, at the right time, and don’t accidentally corrupt shared data. The synchronization mechanisms covered in this lesson are based on standard Java programming language features and standard classes provided by the java.util.concurrent package. The lesson analyzes many sample mechanisms, both in applications and the java.util.concurrent package itself. Viewers learn how to develop correct and efficient concurrent programs, as well as how to understand common problems that arise when these mechanisms are applied incorrectly. The lesson also discusses how Java synchronization mechanisms are enhanced by applying many Gang of Four and POSA patterns.
Lesson 4: Case Studies of Concurrent Programming in Java
Lesson 4 provides in-depth analysis of how the Java threading and synchronization mechanisms covered in earlier lessons can be applied in practice. The first case study explores the design and implementation of a pattern-oriented framework containing two Java threads that alternate printing ping and pong on several types of computing displays. This example shows how the framework enables the use of multiple Java synchronizers to configure and coordinate the proper interactions between the ping and pong threads, as well as the main thread. The second case study analyzes the structure and functionality of another pattern-orientated framework that uses a pool of threads created and managed by the Java Executor framework, together with various Java synchronization mechanisms to mediate concurrent access to a fixed-size pool of resources. Once again, this executor can configure and use a range of Java synchronizers. The third case study explores the design and implementation of an application that downloads image content from remote web servers via various Java threading mechanisms and frameworks, including the Java ExecutorCompletionService framework.
Lesson 5: Source Code Analysis of java.util.concurrent Classes
Lesson 5 explores how Java's threading and synchronization mechanisms are programmed internally. The first part of this lesson focuses on the structure and functionality of the Java Executor framework, including the various thread pool executors and the ExecutorCompletionService. The lesson also shows how these core Java framework classes are supported by various other classes, such as Future and FutureTask. The second part of this lesson analyzes the design and implementation of core Java synchronizers, such as ReentrantLock, ConditionObject, and Semaphore. As part of this analysis, we cover the structure and functionality of Java’s AbstractQueueSynchronizer class. The lesson doesn’t analyze every class or every line of code but instead focuses on the key patterns and idioms used to guide the implementation of classes in the java.util.concurrent package. Understanding the design and implementation of these classes can help programmers understand the patterns and best practices of developing software that uses Java’s concurrency capabilities effectively and efficiently.