The following changes to package java.io were introduced in Java SE 1.2. Minor changes to this package were:

• The out field of the PrintWriter class is now protected rather than private, so that subclasses may access it
• The RandomAccessFile class supports a new setLength method; and
• The StringWriter(int) constructor is now public.

The following constructors check for null input parameters:

• The constructors PrintStream(OutputStream out) and PrintStream(OutputStream out, boolean autoFlush) will throw a NullPointerException if the parameter out is null.
• The constructors InputStreamReader(InputStream in) and InputStreamReader(InputStream in, String enc) will throw a NullPointerException if the in parameter is null.
• The constructors OutputStreamWriter(OutputStream out) and OutputStreamWriter(OutputStream out, String enc) will throw a NullPointerException if the out parameter is null.
• The protected constructors Reader(Object lock) and Writer(Object lock) now throw NullPointerException if the lock parameter is null.