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 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
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 * accompanied this code).
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/**
 * Defines charsets, decoders, and encoders, for translating between bytes and
 * Unicode characters.
 *
 * <blockquote><table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=0 summary="Summary of charsets, decoders, and encoders in this package">
 *  <tr><th><p align="left">Class name</p></th><th><p align="left">Description</p></th></tr>
 *   <tr><td valign=top><tt>{@link java.nio.charset.Charset}</tt></td>
 *       <td>A named mapping between characters<br>and bytes</td></tr>
 *   <tr><td valign=top><tt>{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder}</tt></td>
 *       <td>Decodes bytes into characters</td></tr>
 *   <tr><td valign=top><tt>{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder}&nbsp;&nbsp;</tt></td>
 *       <td>Encodes characters into bytes</td></tr>
 *   <tr><td valign=top><tt>{@link java.nio.charset.CoderResult}&nbsp;&nbsp;</tt></td>
 *       <td>Describes coder results</td></tr>
 *   <tr><td valign=top><tt>{@link java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction}&nbsp;&nbsp;</tt></td>
 *       <td>Describes actions to take when<br>coding errors are detected</td></tr>
 *
 * </table></blockquote>
 *
 * <p> A <i>charset</i> is named mapping between sequences of sixteen-bit Unicode
 * characters and sequences of bytes, in the sense defined in <a
 * href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2278.txt"><i>RFC&nbsp;2278</i></a>.  A
 * <i>decoder</i> is an engine which transforms bytes in a specific charset into
 * characters, and an <i>encoder</i> is an engine which transforms characters into
 * bytes.  Encoders and decoders operate on byte and character buffers.  They are
 * collectively referred to as <i>coders</i>.
 *
 * <p> The {@link java.nio.charset.Charset} class defines methods for creating
 * coders for a given charset and for retrieving the various names associated with
 * a charset.  It also defines static methods for testing whether a particular
 * charset is supported, for locating charset instances by name, and for
 * constructing a map that contains every charset for which support is available
 * in the current Java virtual machine.
 *
 * <p> Most users will not use these classes directly; instead they will use the
 * existing charset-related constructors and methods in the {@link
 * java.lang.String} class, together with the existing {@link
 * java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes, all
 * of whose implementations have been reworked to make use of the charset
 * facilities defined in this package.  A small number of changes have been made
 * to the {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link java.io.OutputStreamWriter}
 * classes in order to allow explicit charset objects to be specified in the
 * construction of instances of those classes.
 *
 * <p> Support for new charsets can be made available via the interface defined in
 * the {@link java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider} class in the <tt>{@link
 * java.nio.charset.spi}</tt> package.
 *
 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a <tt>null</tt> argument to a constructor
 * or method in any class or interface in this package will cause a {@link
 * java.lang.NullPointerException NullPointerException} to be thrown.
 *
 *
 * @since 1.4
 * @author Mark Reinhold
 * @author JSR-51 Expert Group
 */

package java.nio.charset;