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Learning HTTP/2: A Practical Guide for Beginners
What can your organization gain by adopting HTTP/2? How about faster, simpler, and more robust websites and applications? This practical guide demonstrates how the latest version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol can dramatically improve website and application performance. You’ll take a deep dive into HTTP/2 details, and learn how this updated protocol is changing the web landscape. HTTP/1.1 has been the primary means of communicating data across the web for the past 20 years, but the level of interaction today has gone well beyond what people envisioned in 1997. With this book, authors Stephen Ludin and Javier Garza show you how HTTP/2 will help speed the execution of modern sites and applications. With this book, you’ll
154 pages, Paperback
Published June 27, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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December 2, 2023This book shows its age by teaching http/2 protocol from the stance of deciding to switch from http/1 to http/2. Since this review is belatedly written post-COVID, we're WAY past that decision. You just need to learn http protocol, and that protocol is http/2.
If you don't know wtf http protocol is, this book over-teaches you by first explaining what http/1 is, then proving to you that http/2 performs better. This is a waste of time because unless you are migrating a legacy system, providing http/1 context as a way to understand http/2 is like a circular dependency.
A good, patient human being would edit this book to teach http2 protocol as it stands on its own and send all the content to 'convince' people to switch protocol into the appendices of the new version. This would mean that anti-patterns (e.g. sharding) that are remnants of http/1 get mentioned as non-performant strategies you may come across but knowing/recognizing those patterns is not required to understanding http protocol in the first place.
The problem is, doing the work required to make these edits is already more effort on http than anyone wants to spend time on, so the onus is on the reader to trudge through http/1... At least until http/3 comes out.
(So basically, if I had read this book when it came out rather than waiting over a decade*, the information contained would have been more relevant to my existence. But what's life without procrastination, right? This book made me feel my age lol.)
* Actually, no: this book is not as old as my memory tells me it is; it only came out in 2017. I am NOT a decade late to this book.
If you don't know wtf http protocol is, this book over-teaches you by first explaining what http/1 is, then proving to you that http/2 performs better. This is a waste of time because unless you are migrating a legacy system, providing http/1 context as a way to understand http/2 is like a circular dependency.
A good, patient human being would edit this book to teach http2 protocol as it stands on its own and send all the content to 'convince' people to switch protocol into the appendices of the new version. This would mean that anti-patterns (e.g. sharding) that are remnants of http/1 get mentioned as non-performant strategies you may come across but knowing/recognizing those patterns is not required to understanding http protocol in the first place.
The problem is, doing the work required to make these edits is already more effort on http than anyone wants to spend time on, so the onus is on the reader to trudge through http/1... At least until http/3 comes out.
(So basically, if I had read this book when it came out rather than waiting over a decade*, the information contained would have been more relevant to my existence. But what's life without procrastination, right? This book made me feel my age lol.)
* Actually, no: this book is not as old as my memory tells me it is; it only came out in 2017. I am NOT a decade late to this book.
April 25, 2021
A surprisingly engaging (and mercifully short) read about what should be a much drier topic, this book serves as a good crash course for HTTP noobs that will give you a clear mental model as to what the latest version of the protocol improved over its predecessor, and how to approach utilizing and analyzing it.
June 1, 2020
I like the comparison between HTTP and HTTP/2 and the way the book showed the pros and cons of both protocols through a good set of performance tests running through some of the real-world web pages.
The book gives a decent introduction to limitations of HTTP and the attempts to address those over the past ten years - I liked the way the book described best practices to improve HTTP and why some of them became anti-patterns when switching to HTTP/2.
One other thing I liked is the myriad tools described in the book to test/debut/troubleshoot HTTP/2 connections.
Overall it was a pleasant experience to read this book, and I recommend to anyone who wants to get a decent introduction to the protocol without diving too deep to its internals.
The book gives a decent introduction to limitations of HTTP and the attempts to address those over the past ten years - I liked the way the book described best practices to improve HTTP and why some of them became anti-patterns when switching to HTTP/2.
One other thing I liked is the myriad tools described in the book to test/debut/troubleshoot HTTP/2 connections.
Overall it was a pleasant experience to read this book, and I recommend to anyone who wants to get a decent introduction to the protocol without diving too deep to its internals.
October 2, 2018
Helpful. A bit repeaty. But overall I feel it gives a good overview of what the protocol is and what it isn't.
December 22, 2019
Anybody in web development should read this book. I can feel the eye-rolls. I have done web development since the late 90s, and it is amazing how little I know about HTTP 1.1, let alone the recent HTTP 2. I like to do deep dives into all kinds of topics, so I recognize that many web developers may not want to spend time on this.
Let me just say that it is short, although not always easy to read. It gets into some details that most of us won't need to know, but the overarching ideas we will need to know. I suppose many folks can get the big ideas from blog posts and articles already on the internet. I just like having all the details in a book on my shelf with a familiarity of what is in the book in case I want to deep dive on a nuance at a later date.
Let me just say that it is short, although not always easy to read. It gets into some details that most of us won't need to know, but the overarching ideas we will need to know. I suppose many folks can get the big ideas from blog posts and articles already on the internet. I just like having all the details in a book on my shelf with a familiarity of what is in the book in case I want to deep dive on a nuance at a later date.
February 28, 2021
An easy-to-read guide that can double as a supplementary material to ‘High Performance Browser Networking’. It gives you a recap on HTTP/1.1, an overview of HTTP/2, and some tips. The content is no way near enough to get you started on your own HTTP/2 implementation. You’ll just get some basic understanding and some grokking.
August 22, 2017
Great summary of what HTTP2 *is* and what it is *not*.
Before You switch to latest http2 standard, make sure You understand what are the major changes and how do they work! This books makes sure You will have all the info You need to make all adjustments to Your website.
Before You switch to latest http2 standard, make sure You understand what are the major changes and how do they work! This books makes sure You will have all the info You need to make all adjustments to Your website.
January 10, 2022
Agree with another reviewer that it lacked depth. Somehow this short book still felt like it had a lot of filler material (that said, that's better than it being even longer). It did clarify a few things.
December 28, 2017
Short, readable introduction to HTTP/2 from two people who have spent a ton of time working with it. Great starting point!
February 5, 2020
A nice book on the subject, but in my opinion it lacks depth. I would recommend "HTTP/2 In Action" to anyone interested.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews