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Rating: 
Summary: Slim on content, not an expert tour.
Review: Although this book gives some useful insights on compiling other languages into JVM bytecode, it doesn't present any revolutionary concepts. It is not an expert or comprehensive reference by any means and wastes way too many pages on explaining the syntax of the oolong language rather than the workings of the JVM itself. For instance the bytecodes generated and the behaviour of the 'finally' clause in isolation is explained, but not in conjuction with exceptions which it is most commonly used. Unfortunately, like so many other Java references, it resorts to wasting pages on printing Java APIs (in particular the security APIs) when Javadoc in html form is so much more efficient to read. Having said that, the section on verification is interesting and the book itself does spark the imagination of what is possible (and what is not) with JVM bytecode.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Tutorial Introduction to the Java Virtual Machine
Review: The first five chapters of this book provide an introduction to programming in "Java assembly language" using the assembler included on the CD-ROM. This introduction does a good job of explaining the JVM instructions, but could have used more exercises to help the reader learn and practice using more of the instructions. Additionally, the chapters, appendices, and index could have been better organized so that I didn't have to keep flipping through pages to find the syntax and semantics of instructions. The remainder of the book explores various areas such as verification, debugging, the class file format, security, and most importantly, compiling Java and other languages into JVM code. Mostly, this material is a tutorial introduction to information provided in the Java Virtual Machine Specification, but there is some original material in the chapters devoted to compiling Scheme and Prolog. Be aware that this book contains numerous errors; you'll want to grab the errata list from the Addison-Wesley website.
Rating:
Summary: Good Tutorial Introduction to the Java Virtual Machine
Review: The first five chapters of this book provide an introduction to programming in "Java assembly language" using the assembler included on the CD-ROM. This introduction does a good job of explaining the JVM instructions, but could have used more exercises to help the reader learn and practice using more of the instructions. Additionally, the chapters, appendices, and index could have been better organized so that I didn't have to keep flipping through pages to find the syntax and semantics of instructions. The remainder of the book explores various areas such as verification, debugging, the class file format, security, and most importantly, compiling Java and other languages into JVM code. Mostly, this material is a tutorial introduction to information provided in the Java Virtual Machine Specification, but there is some original material in the chapters devoted to compiling Scheme and Prolog. Be aware that this book contains numerous errors; you'll want to grab the errata list from the Addison-Wesley website.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent anaylsis and tutorial!
Review: Together with author's reference implementation in CD, this book is a "must" tutorial for anyone who wants to translate other languages (scheme, prolog...) into java bytecode. It starts with discussions of jvm and bytecode, and then gives deep anaylsis of java the language from the viewpoint of bytecode. From this, reader gains significant insight on how to code in java the best way. Although the book can expand more on its scheme->java implementation, I find it a very good starting point for any serious work. I wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone interested in java and its jvm.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent anaylsis and tutorial!
Review: Together with author's reference implementation in CD, this book is a "must" tutorial for anyone who wants to translate other languages (scheme, prolog...) into java bytecode. It starts with discussions of jvm and bytecode, and then gives deep anaylsis of java the language from the viewpoint of bytecode. From this, reader gains significant insight on how to code in java the best way. Although the book can expand more on its scheme->java implementation, I find it a very good starting point for any serious work. I wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone interested in java and its jvm.
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