Preface

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Purpose and Goals

The purpose of this book is to introduce concurrent programming using objects (which we refer to as component programming) to students who are familiar with procedural and GUI programming. The material in this book is largely tied to concepts used in the Java programming language and the supporting APIs and Java-based tools. Some of the ideas presented can be translated successfully to other languages or APIs; however, the intent of this book is to present the material primarily in a Java framework.

The types of programs that can be produced using the idea of component programming are growing in number and importance. As the use of Internet-based services grows, the need for programs that manage requests from many sources also grows. The tools required to handle these types of requests, such as RMI, CORBA, or J2EE, are all amenable to design and implementation using component techniques. This book covers those techniques and will help students to better understand how the concurrency in these systems affects the programs they implement.

This book is intended for courses in concurrent and object-oriented programming in Java taught at the junior/senior undergraduate level or first-year graduate level. It can also be used as an adjunct to several other courses, such as:

• Concurrent programming or operating systems, for which the first three chapters would serve to help students understand and implement concurrent programs in Java. Also, Chapter 13 could be used as part of a module on distributed computing.

• Distributed programming, for which the concepts from Chapters 3 and 7 could be used as templates for many distributed program implementations, and Chapter 13 could be used to cover aspects of Java RMI.

• Object-oriented programming, for which the discussion in Chapter 5 regarding the use of interfaces in Java and in Chapters 10 to 12 could be used to cover aspects of system design and management.

• Advanced programming in Java, for which the discussion in Chapter 2 could be used to cover threads in Java and in Chapters 4 to 6 to cover topics such as objects, interfaces, and exceptions.

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