Java Programming

Alright, I've tried to do my homework before posting this question, so bear with me. I'm coming from more of a C++ and C# background... I've only been pecking away at Java for 2-3 months.

In C#, Stream is an abstract class inherited by MemoryStream, FileStream, and NetworkStream... maybe even some others, who knows. These Streams allow you to read/write data without any concern for allocation. Very cool.

I've explored java.io.* and java.nio.* and I haven't seen anything that seems to be the equivalent of C#'s MemoryStream. Everything seems to either be file-based or have a static capacity (which I get to declare, but still).

I'm working with C library that I've been JNI-ing for a while here and am now trying to allow the Java devs at my company to interface with the files it manipulates without using the disk. What I mean is that by default, the C library reads and writes based on ANSI paths, which is pretty standard. I'm trying to extend it by allowing them to work completely from memory. We do a lot of processing and if I can keep the disk out of the equation, our work will go that much more quickly.

To accomplish this, I'm going to let them pass me a ByteBuffer, or a Channel, or InputStream and OutputStream... or... see, that's where I get lost. Which one? Or some other? I originally started on ByteBuffer, until I realized that the capacity is solid once I create it. The C library needs to write data out sometimes, and if I run out of space in my ByteBuffer, what then? Allocate a new, larger ByteBuffer, copy the old into the new, and move on? Seems clunky. There has to be a better way. I figure I can't be the only person who has ever needed this kind of functionality.

Any guidance you can provide would be highly appreciated!