How do Streams work? I mean specifically, how Java handles it

Question

I mean this...this is my code
class Wilson implements ConstantsBase
     public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
          Maze mazeArray = new Maze();
          int count = 0;
          int character = System.in.read();
          while (character != -1)
               System.err.println(count++);
               System.out.print((char)character);
               character = System.in.read();
          mazeArray.printMaze();
I run java Grid.Wilson and then the prompt comes up and I type
"test"
the output is
test
0
t1
e2
s3
t4
5
so I am just wondering, does it work like this:
streams comes in chunks, everytime you hit enter, a stream is released. So that is why even though my code looks like it should be outputting one letter at a time, each time I type, it actually won't get a stream until I hit enter, then it gets this stream and goes through the loop. But it is still weird in my head, I wish I had a trace option on this IDE

Answer 1

A stream is just a sequence of bytes in the case of 'in.read(char)': - I believe I read somewhere that a java char is two bytes, then there may be an additional identifier so the output/ program knows what it is - int, char, or string etc. In the case of your output i would 'guess' its a little chunk of bytes then another.