An interface implements a file system for supporting Java record and resource management between an operating system using a first programming language other than Java and a suite of Java applications. The interface provides a method for maintaining any number of files to be open in a manner transparent to the Java applications. Location information of a file is put in storage allocated for usage by Java code when a maximum number of open files is exceeded. A table is used to translate between file names of differing length and to identify directories in a manner to provide a hierarchical file system. An identifier is associated with a shortened Java file name in the table to quickly identify an operating system file with a shortened file name.