Many Java programmers consider the new I/O API, called NIO for New Input/Output, the most important feature in the 1.4 version of the Java 2 standard edition. The NIO package includes many things that have been missing from previous editions of Java that are critical to writing high-performance, large-scale applications: improvements in the areas of buffer management, scalable network and file I/O, character-set support, and regular expression matching. Most of all, it boosts performance and speed dramatically. This text 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. It 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. It explains how to put these tools to work using examples of common, real-world I/O problems and how the new features have a direct impact on responsiveness, scalability, and reliability. As 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. The volume includes a rundown of the new features in NIO, basic and advanced I/O concepts and binary I/O and the new buffer classes. As well as memory mapped files and file locking, Character I/O: encoding, decoding and transforming character data, regular expressions and the new java.util.regex package, and muliplexing with java.nio.