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Re: Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes

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On 2014-11-01, Bob Eager <news0002@eager.cx> wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 03:29:33 +0000, Rich wrote:
>
>> http://www.howtogeek.com/181774/why-windows-uses-backslashes-and-
> everything-else-uses-forward-slashes/?PageSpeed=noscript
>> 
>>    Have you ever noticed that it's C:\Windows\ in Windows,
>>    http://howtogeek.com/ on the web, and /home/user/ on Linux, OS X,
>>    and Android? Windows uses backslashes for paths, while everything
>>    else seems to use forward slashes.
>> 
>>    Modern software tries to automatically correct you when you type
>>    the wrong type of slash, so it doesn't matter which type of slash
>>    you use most of the time. But, sometimes, the difference still
>>    matters.
>> 
>>    So why is Windows the odd operating system out? It's all down to a
>>    few accidents of history that happened decades ago.
>> 
>>    ...
>
> That doesn't really go back far enough. DOS took the / switch
> convention from CP/M - they didn't 'design' it. And CP/M almost
> certainly took it from DEC - on PDP-8, PDP-10, etc.
>
>
Good point.  I was thinking too, the story is a bit mis-represented.
Had the Internet been based on Windows technology for some reason we'd
all be using backslashes and the Unix derivatives would appear quaint
and old-fashioned or something.  As it happened - and for good reasons -
the Internet and Unix were essentially synonomous and therefore the
Internet took on Unix conventions.

Now if I could get a keyboard where the fat key on the right side were
the forward- rather than backward-slash, that would be appreciated.

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Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-11-01 03:29 +0000
  Re: Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes Bob Eager <news0002@eager.cx> - 2014-11-01 11:14 +0000
    Re: Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-11-02 23:05 +0000
      Re: Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-11-02 23:26 +0000
        Re: Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes Bob Eager <news0002@eager.cx> - 2014-11-03 00:04 +0000

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