Question

According to the docs, I can do this:

SocketChannel mySocketChannel = new SocketChannel(SelectorProvider.provider());

According to JDK I can not.

Simple question: Why am I getting the error in the title?

Answer 1

The constructor is protected, meaning only inherited classes can access it to inherit its base functionality (notice that SocketChannel inherits from AbstractSelectableChannel).

To open a SocketChannel, use the static open method:

SocketChannel socketChannel = SocketChannel.open();

See the SocketChannel Documentation and an example.