O'Reilly Media | Java NIO

Buy this Book

Print Book $34.95

PDF $24.99

Read it Now!

Print Book £24.95

Reprint Licensing

Tell a friend

Java NIO

By Ron Hitchens
First Edition August 2002
Pages: 302
ISBN 10: 0-596-00288-2 | ISBN 13: 9780596002886
(Average of 2 Customer Reviews)

Book description

Java NIO explores the new I/O capabilities of version 1.4 in detail and shows you how to put these features to work to greatly improve the efficiency of the Java code you write. This compact volume examines the typical challenges that Java programmers face with I/O and shows you how to take advantage of the capabilities of the new I/O features. You'll learn how to put these tools to work using examples of common, real-world I/O problems and see how the new features have a direct impact on responsiveness, scalability, and reliability. Because the NIO APIs supplement the I/O features of version 1.3, rather than replace them, you'll also learn when to use new APIs and when the older 1.3 I/O APIs are better suited to your particular application.
Full Description

Many serious Java programmers, especially enterprise Java programmers, consider the new I/O API--called NIO for New Input/Output--the most important feature in the 1.4 version of the Java 2 Standard Edition. The NIO package includes many things that have been missing from previous editions of Java that are critical to writing high-performance, large-scale applications: improvements in the areas of buffer management, scalable network and file I/O, character-set support, and regular expression matching. Most of all, it boosts performance and speed dramatically. Java NIO explores the new I/O capabilities of version 1.4 in detail and shows you how to put these features to work to greatly improve the efficiency of the Java code you write. This compact volume examines the typical challenges that Java programmers face with I/O and shows you how to take advantage of the capabilities of the new I/O features. You?ll learn how to put these tools to work using examples of common, real-world I/O problems and see how the new features have a direct impact on responsiveness, scalability, and reliability. The book includes:

A rundown of the new features in NIO
Basic and advanced I/O Concepts
Binary I/O and the new buffer classes
Memory mapped files and file locking
Character I/O: encoding, decoding and transforming character data
Regular Expressions and the new java.util.regex package
Muliplexing with java.nio

Because the NIO APIs supplement the I/O features of version 1.3, rather than replace them, you'll also learn when to use new APIs and when the older 1.3 I/O APIs are better suited to your particular application. Java NIO is for any Java programmer who is interested in learning how to boost I/O performance, but if you're developing applications where performance is critical, such as game computing or large-scale enterprise applications, you'll want to give this book a permanent spot on your bookshelf. With the NIO APIs, Java no longer takes a backseat to any language when it comes to performance. Java NIO will help you realize the benefits of these exciting new features.

Browse within this book

Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon

Featured customer reviews

Java NIO Review, September 03 2002

Rating:

Submitted by John Lee [Respond | View]

First

thanks for sharing sample chapter.

I am wondering if author is planning to publish networking book which emphasize use of nio features and go through with it. Chapter 4 is what I exactly want to read. I wish book itself has more coverage on networking part. Maybe autor might be preparing networking book also. I want to see more emphasis on custom networking(socket programming) with nio and building scalable custom netwokring server.

thanks,

John Lee

Java NIO Review, September 01 2002

Rating:

Submitted by anonymous [Respond | View]

This review is only of the sample chapter on selectors, to which I give two out of a possible five Sloths ( more == better ).

Non-blocking io, threads, sockets are the most important subjects this book can offer to me and the sample chapter on selectors was exactly what I wanted to read.

To the author:

"Life is a series of rude awakenings."

-R. Van Winkle

Unfortunately the sample chapter is long-winded, repetitive and more of an API-reference than a tutorial on how to use the NIO classes. This chapter is not of the caliber of "Java Servlets" by Jason Hunter. I want a book that makes learning how to use these classes less of chore, thank you.

This was a very important development in the Java world and O'Reilly's offering appears to be mediocre.

Read all reviews

Media reviews

"The NIO package doesn't make simple things any simpler, but it does (finally) add regular expressions, nonblocking multiplexed streams, and (my favorite) scattered reads and writes. Ron Hitchens' 'Java NIO' explaines these new facilities clearly and succintly."
--Gregory V. Wilson, "Dr. Dobb's Journal," April 2003

"Five stars. The Bottom Line: 'Java NIO' is a must read for Java programmers developing I/O intensive applications.''
--William Wagers, Java Guide, about.com, October 2002

Read all reviews