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Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes

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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

#5492 — Why Windows Uses Backslashes and Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes

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.

   ...

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#5497

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.



-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 http://www.mirrorservice.org

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#5516

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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#5518

RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> 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.

If you are running X windows, just use xmodmap to remap the "fat" key
to return whatever you like.

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#5520

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 23:26:52 +0000, Rich wrote:

> RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> If you are running X windows, just use xmodmap to remap the "fat" key to
> return whatever you like.

It's not that hard on most systems (haven't tried Windows). I remember 
writing a program to map the Num Lock key to something else (so it could 
act as a VT 'Gold' key for Kermit). And that was on DOS.

-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 http://www.mirrorservice.org

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