Distributed Computing Principles and Applications, Foreign Classic Textbooks, Computer Science and Technology

Author: M.L. Liu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features:
Key Features of This Book:
· It aims to introduce undergraduate students to the principles of distributed computing, which were originally only taught to graduate students.
· It primarily focuses on the upper layers of network computing architecture, specifically the abstraction and paradigms of computation.
· It includes both conceptual and practical content, using code examples and exercises to illustrate and reinforce the concepts.
· It is written as a textbook, employing a narrative style suitable for academic environments, with charts to visually explain the content. Each chapter concludes with exercises and references for further study.
· It is designed for a "learn-by-doing" teaching model: program examples are used to reinforce recently discussed topics, and experimental activities are integrated into the practice exercises at the end of each chapter.
· The author also provides supplementary teaching materials, including slides, program examples, a companion website, and a teacher's manual.
· In addition to the printed book and articles, this book cites many reliable references that can be found online. For example, the references include links to websites where Internet Requests for Comments (RFCs) can be accessed. This book is a rare textbook on distributed computing, not only providing a detailed introduction to the core concepts and principles of distributed programming but also adopting a "learn-by-doing" approach, allowing readers to reinforce their knowledge through program design and experimental exercises. The book consists of 12 chapters, offering a comprehensive overview of computing paradigms, protocols, and application programming interfaces (APIs), including sockets, multicast, remote method invocation (RMI), common object request broker architecture (CORBA), interface definition language (IDL), applets, servlets, common gateway interface (CGI), and simple object access protocol (SOAP). Each chapter first introduces a paradigm and/or protocol, then explains how to use the API to illustrate the core concepts. To make the book clearer and more concise, the author adopts a narrative style and uses numerous illustrative codes and examples. Through this book, readers can apply basic distributed programming techniques to build network services and applications, including Internet applications. This textbook is specifically designed for undergraduate and graduate students and is suitable for distributed computing courses.
Teaching Aids: The original author of the book provides excellent supplementary materials. Errata, illustrative codes, and presentations for teachers can all be found on the author's website. The URL is: http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~mliu/book/index.html