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Akka Concurrency
Writing truly concurrent software on the Java Virtual Machine just got a whole lot easier. The Akka Toolkit takes the sting out of coding for multiple cores, multiple processors, and even multiple machines.
Akka Concurrency will show you what it means to design and write software in the paradigm of Akka. You'll learn how to think about your software in new and exciting ways that will allow you to express your designs naturally, allowing you to focus on the business of your software more than on the concurrency of it. This book picks up where the Akka documentation leaves off, exploring the how and the why of Akka, in a way that will empower you to grow your applications to new levels of scalability, responsiveness, and performance.
Akka Concurrency will show you what it means to design and write software in the paradigm of Akka. You'll learn how to think about your software in new and exciting ways that will allow you to express your designs naturally, allowing you to focus on the business of your software more than on the concurrency of it. This book picks up where the Akka documentation leaves off, exploring the how and the why of Akka, in a way that will empower you to grow your applications to new levels of scalability, responsiveness, and performance.
529 pages, ebook
First published February 1, 2013
16 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 15, 2014
Fabulous, tremendous. Simply awesome.
I really love books written in a way that it's very clear that:
* author really knows what he's writing about ...
* ... and he clearly is a true practicioner of the tech he's writing about, ...
* ... and it seems like he was enjoying writing this book a lot :D
Content is well put in order, no bloat / no bullshit / no marketing, author is able to express his thoughts and ideas in a very clear and concise way. The examples used are all based on one particular "project" case (plane flight), but they are very well "decoupled" so you can easily jump back few chapters to remind yourself something and there's no problem with the context of example.
Any cons then?
1.) The code formatting was a bit of an issue on Kindle Fire - it was not horrible, but linebreaks were really painful sometimes
2.) It's not really author's fault :), but as the book was published about a year ago and Akka's development goes on quite fast, there are already some sections that could use a bit of an update (for instance - I'd love to read about Akka persistence) - I think that tech e-book publishing market needs some kind of evolution in terms of book content updates.
What else? Akka is awesome, this book is awesome (most likely the bests book on Akka you can get these days) - HIGHLY recommended.
I really love books written in a way that it's very clear that:
* author really knows what he's writing about ...
* ... and he clearly is a true practicioner of the tech he's writing about, ...
* ... and it seems like he was enjoying writing this book a lot :D
Content is well put in order, no bloat / no bullshit / no marketing, author is able to express his thoughts and ideas in a very clear and concise way. The examples used are all based on one particular "project" case (plane flight), but they are very well "decoupled" so you can easily jump back few chapters to remind yourself something and there's no problem with the context of example.
Any cons then?
1.) The code formatting was a bit of an issue on Kindle Fire - it was not horrible, but linebreaks were really painful sometimes
2.) It's not really author's fault :), but as the book was published about a year ago and Akka's development goes on quite fast, there are already some sections that could use a bit of an update (for instance - I'd love to read about Akka persistence) - I think that tech e-book publishing market needs some kind of evolution in terms of book content updates.
What else? Akka is awesome, this book is awesome (most likely the bests book on Akka you can get these days) - HIGHLY recommended.
November 26, 2014
Good starting book to get the feeling of Actors paradigm.
I've used Akka for Java based project, so reading examples was a bit harder as they are in Scala.
Another aspect - I think that examples based on aircraft at the book are too verbose for simple concept authors are trying to demonstrate.
In any way - good starting point if you wish to dig into Actors pattern Akka implementation.
I've used Akka for Java based project, so reading examples was a bit harder as they are in Scala.
Another aspect - I think that examples based on aircraft at the book are too verbose for simple concept authors are trying to demonstrate.
In any way - good starting point if you wish to dig into Actors pattern Akka implementation.
June 21, 2018
Great introduction to akka, which goes from the very beginning and high-level concepts, and to in-depth "under the hood" moments and implementation nuances, which matter to more experienced users. Also, it's written in a very easy language, with nice examples and explanations.
October 8, 2017
too dated and shallow, better books have been published later
August 6, 2013
Good book, good subject :) I liked the language which the book is written with - it's like talking with a friend in the bar, very colourful and alive, but sometimes palpably verbose. So if time is valuable, maybe this book is not a right choice.
After reading this book I have a pretty good understanding what akka is, how it works, what programming paradigm lies underneath this library, how to use its advantages and not to get trapped in concurrency problems. Still there were not that brilliant explanations sometimes - e.g. I had to use external sources to finally understand what is a core difference between routers and dispatchers, do one need to combine them and what happens if to try different combinations of their types.
I also can't mention a striking difference between scala's akka and its java API shown in a one of last chapters. As for a java programmer in past, it was shockingly for me to read through all this redundant code when the same meaning of the whole java code page could be put into one scala row as I just learnt from the previous chapters.
After reading this book I have a pretty good understanding what akka is, how it works, what programming paradigm lies underneath this library, how to use its advantages and not to get trapped in concurrency problems. Still there were not that brilliant explanations sometimes - e.g. I had to use external sources to finally understand what is a core difference between routers and dispatchers, do one need to combine them and what happens if to try different combinations of their types.
I also can't mention a striking difference between scala's akka and its java API shown in a one of last chapters. As for a java programmer in past, it was shockingly for me to read through all this redundant code when the same meaning of the whole java code page could be put into one scala row as I just learnt from the previous chapters.
October 15, 2014
Well, actually I gave up at 38%, not because the book is bad, much to the contrary, it is an excellent introduction to an excellent framework, but for my current work and ideas Akka is not (yet) relevant. I may change my mind, but for now I am done with the book.
My only complaint is about the writing style. It's full of narrow cultural references that make sense (I assume) if you are American, but that rather occlude instead of enlighten if you're not. Have an example?
"Threads are an incredibly expensive resource to just start spending like you're dealing with Brewster's Millions", and in a footnote he writes ""Yeah, it was a pretty bad movie, but I was a kid when it came out, so it was awesome".
Well, in this case I know what he means, but unfortunately there's much, much more of that and it tires me. On the other hand, as I said, it's a didactically excellent tutorial. If Akka is what you want to learn, this is your book.
My only complaint is about the writing style. It's full of narrow cultural references that make sense (I assume) if you are American, but that rather occlude instead of enlighten if you're not. Have an example?
"Threads are an incredibly expensive resource to just start spending like you're dealing with Brewster's Millions", and in a footnote he writes ""Yeah, it was a pretty bad movie, but I was a kid when it came out, so it was awesome".
Well, in this case I know what he means, but unfortunately there's much, much more of that and it tires me. On the other hand, as I said, it's a didactically excellent tutorial. If Akka is what you want to learn, this is your book.
February 6, 2017
honestly i just read 40% of the book because i found it to verbose to define simple concepts.
the author tries to explain what akka is by using an aeroplane as example and i didnt like that because it doesnt represent in my opinion real programming examples. i got the point that he tries to map real life to programming but i dont think its necessary to explain most of the things.
anyways a good start point
the author tries to explain what akka is by using an aeroplane as example and i didnt like that because it doesnt represent in my opinion real programming examples. i got the point that he tries to map real life to programming but i dont think its necessary to explain most of the things.
anyways a good start point
August 7, 2013
Funniest technical book that i recall reading. Lots of serious content too. So much in fact that it can serve both as a (verbose) intro as well as a example-rich reference material. Examples are the gist of the book, as are numerous and understandable. It also contains lots of advice with regard to testing and actor system design patterns.
August 7, 2013
The book was fun, detailed, although the topic was extremely complex to handle properly. The only problem I had is the amount of time I needed to spent to catch, handle and fix bugs and missing parts of the source code (not shipped with the book unfortunately)
February 7, 2017
I actually liked the writing style of this book a lot and I was enjoying it, but Akka changed after it was written. The fact that they use ? instead of the ask pattern throughout made it clear that I needed to read a different book so I switched to another book about 1/3rd of the way through.
September 20, 2015
Great, great book on akka. covering everything from basics to some patterns and anti patterns. Some things like clustering or persistence is not covered but it still makes a first book to read when approaching akka.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews