Acknowledgments
Charlie Hunt
For those who have ever considered writing a book, or are curious about the effort involved in doing so, the book-writing experience is a major undertaking! For me it just would not have happened without the help of so many people. I cannot begin to mention everyone who made this possible.
In an attempt to at least name those who have had a profound impact on this book getting drafted and eventually into print, I would first like to thank my coauthors, Monica Beckwith, Bengt Rutisson, and Poonam Parhar. When the idea of doing a companion book to Java™ Performance first surfaced, I thought it would be great to offer the opportunity to these talented HotSpot VM engineers to showcase their expertise. I am sure I have learned much more from each of them than they have learned from me. I could not be prouder of their contributions to this book.
I also extend sincere thanks to Monica Beckwith for her persistence and passion in sharing her in-depth knowledge of G1 GC. In the early days of G1, I had the pleasure of working with Monica on a daily basis on G1 performance, eventually handing off full reins to her. She has done an exceptional job with driving G1’s performance and sharing her G1 knowledge.
I also have to explicitly call out Poonam Parhar and thank her for her patience. Poonam so patiently waited for the other contributors to complete their initial drafts—patiently as in years of patience! Had all of us finished our drafts in a timely way, this book probably would have been on the shelf at least two years earlier.
I also extend my thanks to the entire HotSpot VM team, the HotSpot GC engineering team, and in particular the G1 GC engineers, both past and present.
And to the reviewers of the material in this book: Paul Hohensee for his relentless attention to detail and incredible suggestions for improved readability, and Tony Printezis for his thorough review of the gory details of G1 GC and recommended tuning of G1.
Thanks also to John Cuthbertson for sharing his knowledge of G1. John also happens to be one of the most talented concurrency troubleshooting engineers I have ever worked with. I don’t think I ever saw a situation where I was able to stump him with some bizarre observation about G1 that was clearly some kind of concurrency bug. He was always able to track it down.
And to Bernard Traversat and Georges Saab for their support and encouragement in pulling together material for a follow-on to Java™ Performance.
And obviously thanks to Greg Doench, our editor, for his patience with our many delays in delivering drafts, completing reviews, and getting the manuscript in shape to put in his hands.
Last, thanks to my wife, Barb, and son, Boyd, for putting up with yet another round of the book-writing experience!
Monica Beckwith
I felt honored when I was approached by my mentor Charlie Hunt to write a few chapters for this book. I didn’t have the slightest idea that it would take me so long. So, my first set of thanks goes to my fellow writers for their patience and to Charlie for his persistence and encouragement throughout. While we are talking about encouragement, I want to thank my hubby, Ben Beckwith—when he saw my frustration he had nothing but words of encouragement for me. He was also the initial reviewer of my drafts. Thank you, Ben. And then, of course, my two kiddos, Annika and Bodin, and my mom, Usha, who have been nothing but supportive of me and of this book.
My technical strength on G1 taps off John Cuthbertson, and I am thankful to him for supporting my crazy queries and patiently listening and working with me to “make G1 adaptive” and to “tame mixed collections.” When we used to discuss the adaptive marking threshold, I got tired of typing and talking about InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent, so I shortened it to IHOP and John just loved it. It’s really hard to find such supportive colleagues as John and Charlie.
And then there are Paul Hohensee and Tony Printezis. They are my mentors in their own right, and I can assure you that their persistence in reviewing my chapters has improved the readability and content by at least 75 percent! :)
Thank you all for trusting me and encouraging me. I am forever in your debt!
Poonam Parhar
I was deeply honored and excited when Charlie suggested that I write a chapter on the Serviceability Agent. I thought it was a great idea, as this wonderful tool is little known to the world, and it would be great to talk about its usefulness and capabilities. But I had never written a book before, and I was nervous. Big thanks to Charlie for his trust in me, for his encouragement, and for guiding me throughout writing the chapter on the SA.
I would like to thank my manager, Mattis Castegren, for always being supportive and encouraging of my work on this book, and for being the first reviewer of the chapter on the SA. Huge thanks to Kevin Walls for reviewing my chapter and helping me improve the quality of the content.
Special thanks to my husband, Onkar, who is my best friend, too, for being supportive and always being there whenever I need help. And of course I am grateful to my two little angels, Amanvir and Karanvir, who are my continuous source of motivation and happiness.
And my most sincere thanks to my father, Subhash C. Bajaj, for his infectious cheerfulness and for being a source of light, and for always inspiring me to never give up.
Bengt Rutisson
When Charlie asked me to write a chapter for this book, I was very honored and flattered. I had never written a book before and clearly had no idea how much work it is—even to write just one chapter! I am very grateful for all the support from Charlie and the reviewers. Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this chapter.
A big thanks to my wife, Sara Fritzell, who encouraged me throughout the work and helped me set up deadlines to get the chapter completed. And, of course, many thanks to our children, Max, Elsa, Teo, Emil, and Lina, for putting up with me during the writing period.
I would also like to thank all of the members of the HotSpot GC engineering team, both past and present. They are by far the most talented bunch of engineers I have ever worked with. I have learned so much from all of them, and they have all inspired me in so many ways.