Rating: 
Summary: Annoying, but probably no worse than the rest...
Review: This book has got what you want to know about pthreads. If that was all it had, and it had that in the right order, then it would be perfect. Instead, this is a very frustrating book to read.Take 'mutexes' as an example. A useful explanation for a beginner might be as follows... (1) Where the word 'mutex' comes from (2) What a memory conflict is (3) How a mutex can avoid it (4) How it works (simplified) (5) Some good examples in programs On page 6 we first meet a mutex in a bit about putchar - we turn 'putchar into a 'critical section' (unexplained) because 'putchar might lock a "putchar mutex" '. Don't bother trying to understand it. Next paragraph, we find 'the correct solution is to associate the mutex with the stream', so it was a bad idea in the first place. Oh. Two chapters later, on page 47, you get to know what a 'mutex' is. It's mutual exclusion using a special form of Edsger Dijkstra's semaphore, you dummy. Well, if you've read Edsger Dijkstra's 1968 paper, then you aren't likely to be reading this book, says I. Confused? Keep going. Finally on page 90, there is a neat tabular description of one thread reading a variable before the other one has written it, and how you can stop this with a mutex. Clear and simple, this should have been on page 6. The following section (marked "You may want to skip this explanation...") then describes the sorts of problem you get with real hardware - surely a 'must read' if you are going to do this sort of stuff. There is a noble tradition of giving a bad coding example in one chapter, so you can show how cleverly you can fix it in the next. Look at any Stroustrop book. I think this is a bad idea - every example of code ought to be as good as you can make it: someone might just lift the section from your code as it stands. Anyway, I wasted a lot of time pouring over a 3-page example program because I was convinced it did not work, only to find that the author knew it had a bug in it, but was keeping up the suspense to the next section. While I'm on pet hates, if I wanted Lewis Carroll, I would have bought Lewis Carroll: we could loose the quotes. And the cartoons of "Three Men in a Boat". And the explanations of what the zero in the Unix clock means every time it is used. Ooohhh, this book could be so much shorter, and sooo much better. Still, I have got my program going, and that's the main thing.
Rating:
Summary: Annoying, but probably no worse than the rest...
Review: This book has got what you want to know about pthreads. If that was all it had, and it had that in the right order, then it would be perfect. Instead, this is a very frustrating book to read. Take 'mutexes' as an example. A useful explanation for a beginner might be as follows... (1) Where the word 'mutex' comes from (2) What a memory conflict is (3) How a mutex can avoid it (4) How it works (simplified) (5) Some good examples in programs On page 6 we first meet a mutex in a bit about putchar - we turn 'putchar into a 'critical section' (unexplained) because 'putchar might lock a "putchar mutex" '. Don't bother trying to understand it. Next paragraph, we find 'the correct solution is to associate the mutex with the stream', so it was a bad idea in the first place. Oh. Two chapters later, on page 47, you get to know what a 'mutex' is. It's mutual exclusion using a special form of Edsger Dijkstra's semaphore, you dummy. Well, if you've read Edsger Dijkstra's 1968 paper, then you aren't likely to be reading this book, says I. Confused? Keep going. Finally on page 90, there is a neat tabular description of one thread reading a variable before the other one has written it, and how you can stop this with a mutex. Clear and simple, this should have been on page 6. The following section (marked "You may want to skip this explanation...") then describes the sorts of problem you get with real hardware - surely a 'must read' if you are going to do this sort of stuff. There is a noble tradition of giving a bad coding example in one chapter, so you can show how cleverly you can fix it in the next. Look at any Stroustrop book. I think this is a bad idea - every example of code ought to be as good as you can make it: someone might just lift the section from your code as it stands. Anyway, I wasted a lot of time pouring over a 3-page example program because I was convinced it did not work, only to find that the author knew it had a bug in it, but was keeping up the suspense to the next section. While I'm on pet hates, if I wanted Lewis Carroll, I would have bought Lewis Carroll: we could loose the quotes. And the cartoons of "Three Men in a Boat". And the explanations of what the zero in the Unix clock means every time it is used. Ooohhh, this book could be so much shorter, and sooo much better. Still, I have got my program going, and that's the main thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Reference book for POSIX threads
Review: This book is a fine reference for POSIX threads. It will teach you the why's and how's of thread programming with illustrative examples. It will also tell you about the choices that were made for the threads standard. Finally, it acts as a reference book for the POSIX threads standard. The book delivers what you would expect from a book on POSIX threads, nothing more, nothing less.
Rating: 
Summary: Detailed and easy to understand
Review: This book is great for beginners in Posix. It is detailed and clear. It gives careful explanation of the major Posix functions and complement them with full source codes which compiles perfectly, making everything easier to understand.
Rating:
Summary: The best (POSIX) Threads book I could find.
Review: This book is very focused on multi-threaded programming with an emphasis on POSIX threads. The example code is always carefully explained, and is always clear and to the point. A great book for understanding multithreading concepts, for 'how to' examples, and for advice for avoiding the many pitfalls. If you need to write portable, maintainable threads code that works, this book is a good place to start. I wish the person who wrote the code I now have to debug had read this book and followed Butenhof's teachings!
Rating:
Summary: First Rate. Clear and authoritative
Review: This book provides the clearest, most concise, and most authoritative treatment of POSIX threads that I have seen. The author is a recognized expert and explains how and why Pthreads operates as it does. I approached this book with some fundamental misunderstandings and concerns with respect to Pthrreads, and, after reading a few chapters, everything became clear, obvious, and natural. Furthermore, the author avoids the mistakes, important omissions, and misleading statements that are common in many other multithreading books and articles. The example programs provide additional insight, and the solutions can be used to solve many practical problems. Chapter 8 ("How to Avoid Debugging") is a classic and provides sound advice; I often recommend this chapter to Windows programmers as the advice applies to all multithreaded systems, not just Pthreads. Numerous deadlocks, race conditions, and other all too common bugs can be avoided after a careful reading of this chapter. The author is active in the comp.programming.threads discussion group, and his thorough and thoughtful responses, similar to the explanations in the book, have helped to clear up numerous misunderstandings.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on Pthreads
Review: This book was the best of 4 books that I've read on the topic. The coding examples were all very good and the text covered a great number of topics in the necessary detail (very clear and concise). I just wish I'd read this first -- I wouldn't have needed to read the other three books.
Rating:
Summary: It's good and clear
Review: This is the best pthread book I found so far. The Author used good and simple examples to make pthread concept easy to understand.
Rating:
Summary: Best threads book I've read
Review: Well organized, very useful examples. The author annotates all the source code listings. Source code available on the Web.
Rating:
Summary: Basically Good Stuff
Review: Well written, easy to understand. I enjoy reading it thorougly. Only reason it isn't a 5 star is that the font is so freaking large. Come on! My enlish teacher wouldn't let me get away with this kind of stuff... Neither will I. But, for learning about POSIX threads, this book is nice. Not too technical, not to 'POSIX for Dummies' either...
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