Problem with uppercase letters in Preferences

Question

The following code [excuse lack of formatting]
----- snip ----
import java.util.prefs.*;
public class PrefTest {
Preferences prefs = Preferences.systemRoot();
public PrefTest() {
public void DoIt() {
Preferences myPref = prefs.node("com/MyCompany/MyPackage");
Preferences prefa = myPref.node("MyClass1/Configuration");
prefa.put("MyString", "MyValue");
public static void main(String[] args) {
PrefTest cfg = new PrefTest ();
cfg.DoIt();
----- snip ----
produces the following registry entries [Wndows XP]
----- snip ----
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package\/My/Class1]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\/My/Company\/My/Package\/My/Class1\/Configuration]
"/My/String"="/My/Value"
----- snip ----
As you can see, all the uppercase letters are prefixed by a '/'.
I can see nothing in the docs for java.util.prefs which defines
such behaviour. Is this a bug, a feature or what?
Regards, Alan Beale

Answer 1

OK, I'll reply to my own post, as I think I've found the answer
in case anyone else is interested...
From
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/preferences/
-- snip --
You'll see the result of running the code above under J2SE Beta 1.4 for Windows in Figure 1. Note that WML is encoded as /W/M/L, and PreferredChannel as /Preferred/Channel because Preferences has case-sensitive keys and node-names, while the backing store of choice (in this case Windows Registry) does not.
-- snip --
This implies that reading back the prefs should work OK, although the
data in the registry looks ugly. If this is the case [haven't tested
it yet] then it's not a problem.