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Java Threads, 3rd Edition

Understanding and Mastering Concurrent Programming

By Scott Oaks, Henry Wong

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Release Date: June 2009

Pages: 360

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Threads are essential to Java programming, but learning to use them effectively is a nontrivial task. This new edition of the classic Java Threads shows you how to take full advantage of Java's threading facilities and brings you up-to-date with the watershed changes in Java 2 Standard Edition version 5.0 (J2SE 5.0). It provides a thorough, step-by-step approach to threads programming. Java's threading system is simple relative to other threading systems. In earlier versions of Java, this simplicity came with tradeoffs: some of the advanced features in other threading systems were not available in Java. J2SE 5.0 changes all that: it provides a large number of new thread-related classes that make the task of writing multithreaded programs that much easier. You'll learn where to use threads to increase efficiency, how to use them effectively, and how to avoid common mistakes. This book discusses problems like deadlock, race conditions, and starvation in detail, helping you to write code without hidden bugs. Java Threads, Third Edition, has been thoroughly expanded and revised. It incorporates the concurrency utilities from java.util.concurrent throughout. New chapters cover thread performance, using threads with Swing, threads and Collection classes, thread pools, and threads and I/O (traditional, new, and interrupted). Developers who cannot yet deploy J2SE 5.0 can use thread utilities provided in the Appendix to achieve similar functionality with earlier versions of Java. Topics include:

Lock starvation and deadlock detection
Atomic classes and minimal synchronization (J2SE 5.0)
Interaction of Java threads with Swing, I/O, and Collection classes
Programmatically controlled locks and condition variables (J2SE 5.0)
Thread performance and security
Thread pools (J2SE 5.0)
Thread groups
Platform-specific thread scheduling
Task schedulers (J2SE 5.0)
Parallelizing loops for multiprocessor machines

In short, this new edition of Java Threads covers everything you need to know about threads, from the simplest animation program to the most complex applications. If you plan to do any serious work in Java, you will find this book invaluable. Scott Oaks is a senior software engineer for the Java Performance Engineering group at Sun Microsystems and the author of four books in the O'Reilly Java series. Formerly a senior systems engineer at Sun Microsystems, Henry Wong is an independent consultant working on various Java related projects.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Threads
1. Java Terms
2. About the Examples
3. Why Threads?
4. Summary
Chapter 2 Thread Creation and Management
1. What Is a Thread?
2. Creating a Thread
3. The Lifecycle of a Thread
4. Two Approaches to Stopping a Thread
5. The Runnable Interface
6. Threads and Objects
7. Summary
Chapter 3 Data Synchronization
1. The Synchronized Keyword
2. The Volatile Keyword
3. More on Race Conditions
4. Explicit Locking
5. Lock Scope
6. Choosing a Locking Mechanism
7. Nested Locks
8. Deadlock
9. Lock Fairness
10. Summary
Chapter 4 Thread Notification
1. Wait and Notify
2. Condition Variables
3. Summary
Chapter 5 Minimal Synchronization Techniques
1. Can You Avoid Synchronization?
2. Atomic Variables
3. Thread Local Variables
4. Summary
Chapter 6 Advanced Synchronization Topics
1. Synchronization Terms
2. Synchronization Classes Added in J2SE 5.0
3. Preventing Deadlock
4. Deadlock Detection
5. Lock Starvation
6. Summary
Chapter 7 Threads and Swing
1. Swing Threading Restrictions
2. Processing on the Event-Dispatching Thread
3. Using invokeLater( ) and invokeAndWait( )
4. Long-Running Event Callbacks
5. Summary
Chapter 8 Threads and Collection Classes
1. Overview of Collection Classes
2. Synchronization and Collection Classes
3. The Producer/Consumer Pattern
4. Using the Collection Classes
5. Summary
Chapter 9 Thread Scheduling
1. An Overview of Thread Scheduling
2. Scheduling with Thread Priorities
3. Popular Threading Implementations
4. Summary
Chapter 10 Thread Pools
1. Why Thread Pools?
2. Executors
3. Using a Thread Pool
4. Queues and Sizes
5. Thread Creation
6. Callable Tasks and Future Results
7. Single-Threaded Access
8. Summary
Chapter 11 Task Scheduling
1. Overview of Task Scheduling
2. The java.util.Timer Class
3. The javax.swing.Timer Class
4. The ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor Class
5. Summary
Chapter 12 Threads and I/O
1. A Traditional I/O Server
2. A New I/O Server
3. Interrupted I/O
4. Summary
Chapter 13 Miscellaneous Thread Topics
1. Thread Groups
2. Threads and Java Security
3. Daemon Threads
4. Threads and Class Loading
5. Threads and Exception Handling
6. Threads, Stacks, and Memory Usage
7. Summary
Chapter 14 Thread Performance
1. Overview of Performance
2. Synchronized Collections
3. Atomic Variables and Contended Synchronization
4. Thread Creation and Thread Pools
5. Summary
Chapter 15 Parallelizing Loops for Multiprocessor Machines
1. Parallelizing a Single-Threaded Program
2. Multiprocessor Scaling
3. Summary

Appendix A Superseded Threading Utilities
1. The BusyFlag Class
2. The CondVar Class
3. The Barrier Class
4. The RWLock Class
5. The ThreadPool Class
6. The JobScheduler Class
7. Summary
Colophon

Books & Videos

Java Threads, 3rd Edition

Understanding and Mastering Concurrent Programming

Read on Safari with a 10-day trial

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction to Threads

Java Terms

About the Examples

Why Threads?

Summary

Chapter 2 Thread Creation and Management

What Is a Thread?

Creating a Thread

The Lifecycle of a Thread

Two Approaches to Stopping a Thread

The Runnable Interface

Threads and Objects

Summary

Chapter 3 Data Synchronization

The Synchronized Keyword

The Volatile Keyword

More on Race Conditions

Explicit Locking

Lock Scope

Choosing a Locking Mechanism

Nested Locks

Deadlock

Lock Fairness

Summary

Chapter 4 Thread Notification

Wait and Notify

Condition Variables

Summary

Chapter 5 Minimal Synchronization Techniques

Can You Avoid Synchronization?

Atomic Variables

Thread Local Variables

Summary

Chapter 6 Advanced Synchronization Topics

Synchronization Terms

Synchronization Classes Added in J2SE 5.0

Preventing Deadlock

Deadlock Detection

Lock Starvation

Summary

Chapter 7 Threads and Swing

Swing Threading Restrictions

Processing on the Event-Dispatching Thread

Using invokeLater( ) and invokeAndWait( )

Long-Running Event Callbacks

Summary

Chapter 8 Threads and Collection Classes

Overview of Collection Classes

Synchronization and Collection Classes

The Producer/Consumer Pattern

Using the Collection Classes

Summary

Chapter 9 Thread Scheduling

An Overview of Thread Scheduling

Scheduling with Thread Priorities

Popular Threading Implementations

Summary

Chapter 10 Thread Pools

Why Thread Pools?

Executors

Using a Thread Pool

Queues and Sizes

Thread Creation

Callable Tasks and Future Results

Single-Threaded Access

Summary

Chapter 11 Task Scheduling

Overview of Task Scheduling

The java.util.Timer Class

The javax.swing.Timer Class

The ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor Class

Summary

Chapter 12 Threads and I/O

A Traditional I/O Server

A New I/O Server