Book excerpt: "The best introduction to transaction processing systems I have ever read." - K.Torp, ACM Computing Reviews, November 1997 Principles of Transaction Processing is a clear, concise guide for anyone involved in developing applications, evaluating products, designing systems, or engineering products. This book provides an understanding of the internals of transaction processing systems, describing how they work and how best to use them. It includes the architecture of transaction processing monitors, transactional communications paradigms, and mechanisms for recovering from transaction and system failures. Use of transaction processing systems in business, industry, and government is increasing rapidly; the emergence of electronic commerce on the Internet is creating new demands. As a result, many developers are encountering transaction processing applications for the first time and need a practical explanation of techniques. Software engineers who build and market operating systems, communications systems, programming tools, and other products used in transaction processing applications will also benefit from this thorough presentation of principles. Rich with examples, it describes commercial transaction processing systems, transactional aspects of database servers, messaging systems, Internet servers, and object-oriented systems, as well as each of their subsystems. Features: Easy-to-read descriptions of fundamentals. Real world examples illustrating key points. Focuses on practical issues faced by developers. Explains most major products and standards, including IBM's CICS, IMS, and MQSeries; X/Open's XA, STDL, and TX; BEA Systems' TUXEDO; Digital's ACMS; Transarc's Encina; AT&T/NCR's TOP END; Tandem's Pathway/TS; OMG's OTS; and Microsoft's Microsoft Transaction Server.