| Java NIO explores the new I/O capabilities of version 1.4 in detail and shows you how to put these features to work to greatly improve the efficiency of the Java code you write. This compact volume examines the typical challenges that Java programmers face with I/O and shows you how to take advantage of the capabilities of the new I/O features. You'll learn how to put these tools to work using examples of common, real-world I/O problems and see how the new features have a direct impact on responsiveness, scalability, and reliability.
Because the NIO APIs supplement the I/O features of version 1.3, rather than replace them, you'll also learn when to use new APIs and when the older 1.3 I/O APIs are better suited to your particular application.
This book is about advanced input/output on the Java platform, specifically I/O using the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) Software Development Kit (SDK), Version 1.4 and later. The 1.4 release of J2SE, code-named Merlin, contains significant new I/O capabilities that we'll explore in detail. These new I/O features are primarily collected in the java.nio package (and its subpackages) and have been dubbed New I/O (NIO). In this book, you'll see how to put these exciting new features to work to greatly improve the I/O efficiency of your Java applications.
Java has found its true home among Enterprise Applications (a slippery term if ever there was one), but until the 1.4 release of the J2SE SDK, Java has been at a disadvantage relative to natively compiled languages in the area of I/O. This weakness stems from Java's greatest strength: Write Once, Run Anywhere. The need for the illusion of a virtual machine, the JVM, means that compromises must be made to make all JVM deployment platforms look the same when running Java bytecode. This need for commonality across operating-system platforms has resulted, to some extent, in a least-common-denominator approach. |
