Intended for software developers, this book presents methods for improving the performance and scalability of applications. The authors, a Java engineer and engineering manager, clarify common mistakes and misconceptions about Java performance and provide overall development strategies and techniques for improving applications constructed with Java.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Since its introduction in 1995, the Java platform's facilitation of rapid development and other features has endeared it to programmers. Unfortunately, the Java platform has also been dogged by performance issues like speed, scalability, and startup time. Performance is one of the toughest issues today; the newsgroup comp.lang.java.programmer has over 3,000 messages asking questions on Java performance! This book presents strategies and tactics programmers can use to effectively evaluate and optimize the performance of their Java programs. A related book by Dov Bulka, Java Perfomance and Scalability focuses on the server-side and is formated in 50 distinct optimization lessons. Wilson et al covers the client side (AWT, Swing) as well as the server-side. Wilson's material is also presented in a more traditional chapter format allowing for indepth discussion.