Rating: 
Summary: Recommended
Review: The book ranges rather widely, covering a huge number of tuning details. The author seems to know hands-on performance tuning very well, and many of the examples were directly applicable to our own development. There is only one chapter on designing for performance (I would have liked more), but in that chapter he did identify precisely the issues that we encountered in our project. The example of double sorting internationalized text transferred directly to our project and speeded up a crucial area of our presentation. I do recommend this book, but do not expect a design book. This is strongly hands-on performance tuning.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most useful Java books I own
Review: This book analyzes what it is that makes many Java programs slow and what can be done to speed them up. Many of the examples exhibit speed increases of 20x-100x! Mr. Shirazi doesn't just talk about optimizing your switch statements so they use the table-lookup version of the bytecode (although that is covered), which is one of the low-level optimizations that will sometimes double the speed of a critical section, but also shows how to implement more profound algorithmic optimizations - the kind that can give order-of-magnitude speedups or better.
Memory management is covered, including excellent coverage of object creation, what the overhead REALLY is, how to reduce it by reusing objects, avoiding primitive wrapper classes, and other optimizations.
There is also suberb advice on algorithms (sorting, searching, data structures), I/O, multithreading (LOTS of fun, as always), character encoding optimization, and the fascinating but complex world of distributed computing.
A good distinction is made between the kinds of optimizations that are simply good coding practices and should be practiced regularly (such as using StringBuffers instead of Strings with the + operator) and those that, while being good for performance, are bad for design and increase maintenance costs. So Mr. Shirazi shows us that we can never know what will be slow until we profile, profile, profile. And the profiling done throughout the book doesn't use expensive commercial products, but simple timing code discussed in the first couple chapters.
Overall, a book I very much enjoyed reading and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for every serious Java developer
Review: This book definitely deserves a prominent place on every Java programmer bookshelf. I found this book to be concise and illuminating. The Author approach the subject matter in an orderly fashion and covers fundamentals of performance tuning and then proceeds to handle more Java specific constructs. And he does so in a clear will-written language.This book is a must for every Java Programmer.The Begiiner will find it's basic teachings crucial to develop good programs and the experienced Java Developer will find that the scientific approach to performance tuning and measuring is rewarding. Especially, he will appreciate its thorough coverage of server programming and tuning techniques. It will more than repay its value of money and reading time in enhancing and enlighten you to the pitfalls of developing optimized Java Applications. For those interested in more Java performance enlightment, I would like to recommend the "Java Performance and Scalability, Volume 1: Server-Side Programming Techniques" by Dov Bulka, it covers more advanced areas od server side in detail.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended for developers...
Review: This book is diverse in it's approach to java performance tuning. It is very good at describing common bottlenecks in detail and providing concrete examples of how to write better performing code. It has good coverage of topics including Object creation, I/O and sorting. It illustrates efficient ways to write loops and switches and provides insight into the performance costs of exceptions and casts. 'Java Performance Tuning' also shows how to implement class specific collection classes among other topics. It takes a comprehensive look at the java profiling tools available and gives illustrated advantages of applying specific techniques. Performance results are contrasted for the various JVMs (JDK1.2 with and without JIT, JDK1.3, Hotspot 1.0). 'Java Performance Tuning' has improved my programming and will sit on my shelf as an excellent reference I know I can turn to if asked to tune a Java application.
Rating:
Summary: Must Read EveryJava Programmer
Review: This book is the best java book i have read so far and i think this is a must for every java programmer. This book is special in a way where Mr. Shirazi highlights the common mistakes performed while programming and how costly they.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, and I can't wait for the 2nd ed.
Review: This book was totally brilliant. I've been doing Java for five years, and actually got this book nearly two years ago. It is still the best Java book I've read! I came back here because I saw that the 2nd edition is shortly to come out, and it includes all the 1.4 stuff as well as J2EE tuning. I thought I'd let the rest of you know, so that you buy that one rather than this, I hate getting a book only to have the updated edition come out a month later. If there wasn't a 2nd ed, I'd fully recommend this edition. I'll be buying the 2nd ed as soon as I can.
Rating:
Summary: Performace tuning, now we're talking
Review: This edition provides substantial benchmarks which thorough includes coverage of the JDK including loops, exceptions, strings, threading, and even underlying JVM improvements in the 1.4 VM. This book is one of a kind in its material and completeness. In my opinion, the author doesn't spend as much time on J2EE as is spent on J2SE chapters. I was excited to all of the stats and examples on J2SE, but was let down when there was nowhere near as much emphasis on J2EE. Many of the J2SE performance practices still apply for J2EE, but it would be useful to strengthen these chapters with actual performance metrics. This book is indispensable for the developer that is designing the performance requirements and the processes for proper testing. In addition to containing excellent advice, it's the most up to date publication dealing specifically with performance of Java applications.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: This is an awesome book. One of the best Java books I've read. I was given the task of becoming the "performance expert" in the company,and I've read about five of the perf books that have now come out, and this is definitely the best. My only comment is that I wish it was twice as long. Excellent, defintely recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: This is an excellent book by an experienced programer. The criticisms of it are totally unjustified.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, not just my view
Review: This is an excellent book, with something like 300 tuning techniques covered. Some techniques are more hairy than others, but the breadth and depth is astonishing. I did extensive research before buying this book. I found that it was in the top 3 editors choice for Java book at Javaworld a couple of times, in the top 20 Java books readers choice at JDJ a couple of times (note that is all "Java" books, not "Java Performance" books), it was the choice of a comparative review of Java performance books, it had good reviews by every professional review I could find, and finally, after having read it, it is one of the few Java books I keep handy as a reference. Looking down at some of the other reviews here at Amazon, I see most people agree with me too. There are some nitpickers. I had to laugh at sudiptokanti, he seems to have decided the book was too dangerous for him. Certainly there are suggestions in the book of hairy performance tunes, as there are many more of perfectly good best practice tunes. And, as the author points out, you should not be using these techniques except after you have identified a bottleneck. sudiptokanti seems to have reviewed the book as if it is a development guide rather than what it is: an excellent guide on performance tuning your applications.
| 
