Introduction to Java threads

The Java language included support for threads and concurrency from day 1, but writing correct multithreaded programs is not easy. This session will cover the how and why of using threads in Java.

Programming is hard, but concurrent programming is harder. Concurrent programs are at risk for all the safety, liveness, and performance hazards that sequential programs are. But there are also many hazards that apply exclusively to multithreaded programs, such as race conditions, stale data, and deadlock.

If an object is going to be accessed from multiple threads, it should be thread-safe. The requirement for thread-safety is often introduced into Java programs not by explicit use of threads within the program, but by the use of frameworks, such as Servlets and Swing, which create threads and call application components from those threads.

This class will cover what is thread safety, how to create thread-safe classes, and what costs and benefits you can expect to encounter by using threads in your programs.

About Brian Goetz

Brian Goetz has been a professional software developer for 20 years. He is the author of over 75 articles on software development, and his book, Java Concurrency In Practice, was published in May 2006 by Addison-Wesley. He serves on the JCP Expert Groups for JSRs 166 (concurrency utilities), 107 (caching), and 305 (annotations for safety analysis). He is a frequent presenter at JavaOne, OOPSLA, JavaPolis, SDWest, and the No Fluff Just Stuff Software Symposium Tour. Brian is a Sr. Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems.

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