Programming Concurrency on the JVM

Mastering Synchronization, STM, and Actors

by Venkat Subramaniam

Stop dreading concurrency hassles and start reaping the pure power of modern multicore hardware. Learn how to avoid shared mutable state and how to write safe, elegant, explicit synchronization-free programs in Java or other JVM languages including Clojure, JRuby, Groovy, or Scala.

Programming Concurrency on the JVM is the first book to show you three prominent concurrency styles: the synchronization model of the JDK, Software Transactional Memory (STM), and actor-based concurrency. You’ll learn the benefits of each of these models, when and how to use them, and what their limitations are so you can compare and choose what works best for your applications.

More than ever, learning to program using concurrency is critical to creating faster, responsive applications, and now you can leverage the Java platform to bring these applications to high-octane life. In this book, you’ll see how to:

• Painlessly develop correct concurrent programs
• Use modern, explicit synchronization-free concurrency solutions from pure Java
• Choose concurrency options separately from choosing an implementation language
• Gain the skills to master concurrency on the latest-generation hardware

Through hands-on exercises you’ll master these techniques in short order, and understand when and where to use them in your next killer app.

What You Need

If you are a Java programmer, you’d need JDK 1.5 or later and the Akka 1.0 library. In addition, if you program in Scala, Clojure, Groovy or JRuby you’d need the latest version of your preferred language. Groovy programmers will also need GPars.

• Errata, typos, suggestions

• Source Code (zip file)

Releases:

• P1.0 2018/07/09
• P1.0 2011/08/24
• B2.0 2011/06/08
• B1.0 2011/03/20

Full Table of Contents

Preface

• The Power and Perils of Concurrency
• Strategies for Concurrency
  • Division of Labor excerpt
  • Design Approaches
• Modern Java/JDK Concurrency
  • Scalability and Thread Safety
  • Taming Shared Mutability excerpt
• Software Transactional Memory
  • Introduction to Software Transactional Memory
  • STM in Clojure, Groovy, Java, JRuby, and Scala
• Actor-Based Concurrency
  • Favoring Isolated Mutability excerpt
  • Actors in Groovy, Java, JRuby, and Scala
• Epilogue
  • Zen of Programming Concurrency
• Clojure Agents
• Web Resources
• Bibliography