Reactive for the impatient

Description

As Java is an object-oriented language that inherently supports the imperative programming style, asynchronicity presents a challenge that can turn the code into a nightmare. One way to deal with the complexity of asynchronicity is to introduce reactivity onto the coding level (reactive programming); you can also handle it on the design and architecture level (reactive systems design).

Mary Grygleski details a few of the major Java-based and open source reactive frameworks and toolkits in the market today, such as RxJava, Spring Reactor, Akka, and Vert.×. She explains the basic tenets of reactive systems and shares examples of the problems that these systems aim to solve, as well as the two most commonly used Java frameworks for implementing reactive coding—RxJava and Spring Reactor—and shows some code samples. She brings you to the next level of “reactivity” by introducing two reactive frameworks—Akka and Vert.x, which are usually used for implementing reactive microservices. You’ll draw comparisons between the frameworks and explore real-world examples of their uses.