The Streams package includes flexible, Java-like stream abstractions that include support for streaming tiny and wide characters. These stream abstractions give you more ways to move data into and out of your application and can optionally interoperate with the virtual streaming mechanism in the Essential Tools Module for even more flexibility.

The Streams package provides five stream families:

The wide character streams and Unicode character streams provide support for internationalization.

For more information on using the Advanced Tools Module to internationalize your streams, see International Features of the Advanced Tools Module.