Java Performance Tuning
Author: Jack Shirazi
Review created: 2019-04-13
I read Java Performance Tuning a long time ago, in 2001 or 2002 if I remember correctly. Much has changed since then. Back in those days the JVM was far, far from as optimized as today and the importance of concurrent programming was not near as heavily stressed then as it is now. Instead other things were important. The performance of string operations for example. Then book describes how you could write a string class of your own in order to get better performance compared to the String class of the JDK. At the time it might have been reasonable to do so, although I did not think so and never implemented on of my own, but today the notion of writing your own string class would be considered crazy.
The book contains 15 chapters where each chapter appart from the first and the last discusses a specific performance related topic. The names of the chapters are:
- Introduction
- Profiling Tools
- Underlying JDK Improvements
- Object Creation
- Strings
- Loops and Switches
- I/O, Logging and Console Output
- Sorting
- Threading
- Appropriate Data Structures and Algorithms
- Distributed Computing
- When to Optimize
- Underlying Operating System and Network Improvements
- Further Reading
As can be deduced from the list of chapter names, much of the stoff of the book is concerned about optimizing the performance of Java programs developed and executed by versions 1.1 to 1.3 of the JDK. Many of the optimizations suggested by the book, but not all, have been surpassed by improvements in the JVM and in the language itself. Some technologies discussed at length in the book, e.g. RMI, is not nearly used as much as they were for almost two decades ago.
Does this mean that the book is not worth reading? Yes, I would say so. If you are interested in tuning Java programs with regards to performance, there are other books that are much more relevant. Spending time on reading Java Performance Tuning is almost a complete waste of time. I don't regret having bought the book, it was rather useful back in the days even if I even then thought that some of the suggestions made in the book, like writing your own String class, was a little bit too hard core for me.
In summary, this book has not aged very well. Most of the advice it gives about the performance enhancements that could be made of Java programs were relevant during the years around the turn of the century, but they are hardly relevant now.
Rating: 2 of 5.