Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs

The material covered is maddeningly difficult to master informally because concurrency errors often manifest themselves as rare, random, and disastrous events that cannot be reproduced. Most of the book is laying down a solid formal foundation in which to reason about concurrency; the only hope for getting it right when things are difficult. It also comes with analysis tools (in Java of course!) to help people who learn by exploration, experimentation, and visualisation.


extremely useful for understanding concurrency issues   November 16, 1999
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

It was only after reading that book that I was able to really understand the conecepts of interleaved actions, race conditions, semaphores and monitors (as well as other concurrency-related issues). As a newcomer to IT generally, reading this book enabled me to understand better the Operating Systems course at Imperial College. I think the reading of this book should precede any approach to a course on operating systems. As a final note, Jeff Kramer is one of the most popular lecturers at the department of computing of Imperial College. Many other studens I spoke too were convinced that his teaching was by far the most efficient. I strongly recommend the book! I still use it at work as an ever useful reference.


Concurrency for the new millenium   September 28, 1999
 19 out of 19 found this review helpful

I have also used this book in manuscript form for two years at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and am now using it in Victoria, Canada. In both cases, the book forms the introductory part to a larger course on object-oriented distributed systems.

Without this book the students would be lost in the mire of COM, RMI, CORBA etc and learn no principles to carry them through after graduation. Magee and Kramer package up the classical Hoare CSP in such a way that it is palatable, easy to use, and really illustrates difficult points to students on-line. Students say the course is fun. It is fitting that this book should appear just as Tony Hoare retires from Oxford. Magee and Kramer show how concurrency should be done in the new millenium.

Just one word of warning: there are five notations to master in the book: FSP modelling, LTS diagrams, UML diagrams, structure diagrams and Java. I found that being forewarned on this aspect helped me explain the need for all of them to students.


Excellent Textbook on Concurrency Theory and Practice   April 20, 1999
 24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I have used Magee and Kramer's book (or rather their manuscript) twice in the UG programme of the Dept. of Computer Science at University Collge London. I used it to teach a 30 hours course on Concurrency to final year BSc students in Computer Science.

The book is very appealing for several reasons:

Firstly, it is the only available book that provides an engineering discipline to concurrency. It covers both a sound introduction to the theory of concurrency and practical guidelines how to design concurrent programs using the UML and Java.

Secondly, the book is nicely written indeed. The concepts are well motivated, the intriguingly difficult theory of concurrency is well explained and the book is full of examples that show both theory and practice of Concurrency.

Thirdly, the book is not only a book; it's a nicely boundled package. It comes with Java demonstration applets that I used to visualize concurrency concepts, such as Monitors, Mutual Exclusion and Fairness in the class room. Moreover, the book includes a CD with a tool that students (and professors) can use for modelling and model checking purposes. The tool implements labelled transition systems analysis and supports visualization of label transition system execution. Finally the web site that accompanies the book is full of exercises and exam questions and model answers are available too.

Using this material was a truly positive experience.