O.K., so you’ve heard all the hype about how Jini is going to revolutionize the way we work with networks, but you really need to understand how to use it before you can form a serious opinion. Personally, I firmly believe Jini is the revolution people are talking about, and I think this book can put you in the best position to decide for yourself. Better than anything on the market today, this is the book that’ll clear things up. Pragmatic, with great, step-by-step instructions that can help you get set up and ready for serious Jini development, Core Jini is well thought out, clear and easy to read, comprehensive, filled with example code you can put to work, with a good focus on explaining the details left out by other books that cover Jini technology.

The book is divided into three parts, the third of which is dedicated to two appendices that cover RMI and the recent activation framework, and a listing of useful properties for Java VMs and Jini services. Part one spans 4 chapters and provides a meaningful look at the philosophy behind the new Jini paradigm, key information that can help you set up a workable environment to work with, coverage of what it means to work with distributed systems and a close look at the Jini programming model and all its basic parts, concluding with a chapter on Jini deployment. By the time you finish reading Part I, you know what Jini is and you’ve had experience setting up your development environment. The distributed computing material in chapter 2 was a huge influence on me and may force you to look closely at the assumptions we make when dealing with currently accepted wisdom.

Part II spans 11 chapters, drilling down into practical examples that contribute to a growing understanding of Jini in action. These chapters cover the Discovery protocols, Lookup services, Leasing, Transactions, event management and the JavaSpaces interface. Along the way, you’ll see plenty of clearly explained, evolving code that demonstrates the development of clients and services, providing good instruction on maintaining robust, self-healing, distributed systems, presenting tips that can help you avoid serious problems, all clearly presented by an author who has done considerable homework. The book is impressive on many fronts, but stands out as the most comprehensive exploration of Jini technology in print.

Much of the information in these pages is completely unavailable anywhere else. The Jini specifications, and other Jini books in print, never take the time explain what’s required to set up an working development environment, what the choices and implications are. If that’s not reason enough to invest in this book, I’d recommend you consider placing it at the top of your reading list. While technologies like EJB are critical to effective development in the enterprise today, Jini is likely to impact the world of computing on at least the same scale as the Windows 3.1 release in its heyday. The computer world is shifting dramatically and Core Jini is a shining beacon that lights up the future.