4. The Rest of This Book

A good question is never answered.

It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.

—John Ciardi

By now you should have an overview of how the Jini technology works and what it takes to write a client and service. The rest of this book contains the specifications of the Jini architecture. Each specification is prefaced by a short paragraph describing where it fits into the architecture. After the specifications you will find a glossary that defines terms used in the specifications. Appendix A is a reprint of “A Note on Distributed Computing,” whose thinking undergirds the Jini architecture. Appendix B contains the full code for the examples. You can follow the Jini architecture and related technical discussions at http://jini.org.

Each specification has a two-letter code. For example, the Jini Service Discovery Utilities Specification has the code “SD.” This provides a common identifier for the specification (such as SD.2.1) no matter what order the specifications are placed in. For example, in this book we have placed the specifications in a reasonable reading order. Another book might publish only relevant specifications, or publish them in a different order. The codes let you talk with others about specifications using the same section names no matter where each of you read the work. The code is shown at the beginning of each specification, in the specification’s section and figure numbers, and on the thumb tabs at the edge of the right-hand pages. The core specification is the largest, containing several sections; to help keep track of these sections, each is also assigned a two-letter code.

This book is the first in a series that is “…from the source”— from those who design, implement, and document the Jini system. These books will all be written either by the originators of the work in question or by people who work closely with them to document the designs and technologies. Other good books and web sites are available from other sources. We hope that the Jini architecture and its designs prove useful to you both as user and as developer. At our series’ web site http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jini/ you will find related resources including a downloadable version of the source in the series’ books (including this source from this book), errata, and other series-related information.

I have the simplest tastes.

I am always satisfied with the best.

—Oscar Wilde