The File class is a true abstract
representation of file and directory pathnames. This allows
the File class to better support non-Unix platforms such as Windows,
which has a rich pathname syntax involving drive letters, UNC share
names, and multiple separator characters. The
specification of class File prior to the JavaTM 2 Platform could not handle these cases because it was written in
terms of simple string operations.
The following features were introduced in the File class
in the Java 2 Platform, v1.2: