This lesson has mostly talked about the java.io package. This package provides all the I/O features most programmers will ever need. The package implements basic I/O services — data streams, random access files, character translation, and buffering — with a simple and easy-to-use API.

However, some programmers of high-performance applications will need more flexibility than the java.io package supplies. They'll find it in the java.nio.* packages. These packages provide APIs for scalable I/O, fast buffered byte and character I/O, and character set conversion