Simple to understand, but I prefer a bit of complexity. . .

Most of my experience in network programming comes from W. Richard Stevens' "UNIX Network Programming", where there's lots of detail in the TCP/IP protocol, and using C to implement it. At the time, the professor teaching the course tried to provide us with comparable programs in Java, but not having a good Java networking book to consult from was a drawback to those segues.

This book serves as an excellent companion to Stevens' book, so that you can get the feel for how Java accomplishes networking capabilities. I still prefer the TCP/IP detail that Stevens' book provides, but that's mainly because I like the language independent concept of networking.

I created a small client2client messaging applet, sent it to a couple of friends for testing, and enjoyed how quickly and easily it was to get it working. Java abstracts a lot of the detail away from the user, since it was designed from the get-go to include networking capabilities, and this book uses those abstractions to its advantage. I'll probably want to get my hands dirty and see how much hands-on control I can get with Java sometime later.

(Reilly*2)'s book is a great way to just jump into network programming without getting your head too tangled with TCP/IP intricacies. This is not to say that the book doesn't cover those details, but it doesn't delve into them as deeply as Stevens' book does. In my view, that's a drawback to it being an absolute reference, but for many who just want to start developing client/server apps, this may be just what you're looking for.

Other Reviews

• Content great - but book fell apart
• One of the best instructional books I�ve read!
• Very well written
• Simple to understand, but I prefer a bit of complexity. . .
• A good intro book