Difference between File.separator and slash in paths

With the Java libraries for dealing with files, you can safely use / (slash, not backslash) on all platforms. The library code handles translating things into platform-specific paths internally.

You might want to use File.separator in UI, however, because it's best to show people what will make sense in their OS, rather than what makes sense to Java.

Update: I have not been able, in five minutes of searching, to find the "you can always use a slash" behavior documented. Now, I'm sure I've seen it documented, but in the absense of finding an official reference (because my memory isn't perfect), I'd stick with using File.separator because you know that will work.

You use File.separator because someday your program might run on a platform developed in a far-off land, a land of strange things and stranger people, where horses cry and cows operate all the elevators. In this land, people have traditionally used the ":" character as a file separator, and so dutifully the JVM obeys their wishes.