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#1 2005-02-08 2:23 pm

networkchair
Member
Registered: 2005-02-08
Posts: 2

Slash or Backslash?

In the March 05 article,  "Create a Text-Based iPod Game", Page 55, "Note Reader Code Cheat Sheet", There is a statement:
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<a href> page name </a> Links to other NoteReader files; add a backslash (/) before the page name if your file is in the root Notes folder.
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The statement says "backslash" but the example in parentheses is a forward slash.  Just curious as which kind of slash was intended.

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#2 2005-02-08 3:55 pm

stoned
self employed
From: north little havana
Registered: 2001-11-13
Posts: 4031
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Re: Slash or Backslash?

i always thought "/" was a backslash and "\" was a forward slash.


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#3 2005-02-08 4:19 pm

saddino
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Registered: 2004-05-18
Posts: 8

Re: Slash or Backslash?

stoned wrote:

i always thought "/" was a backslash and "\" was a forward slash.

Nope, the other way around.  An interesting history of the backslash can be found here: HOW ASCII GOT ITS BACKSLASH

A good quote:
"So the backslash became that most useful of characters -- one nobody had used or preempted, just waiting there for a new use. The DOS system that Microsoft bought gave us that use in the directory mechanism!"

It could be that since DOS made the backslash popular, people began to think of it as the "right way" and the UNIX directory system (which URLs use) as the "opposite."  But the truth is: the  (/) is the slash (or "forward slash") and (\) is the backslash.

And to answer the original question: that is probably a typo since OS X uses the UNIX directory structure.  It should be a forward slash.

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#4 2005-02-08 4:22 pm

stoned
self employed
From: north little havana
Registered: 2001-11-13
Posts: 4031
Website

Re: Slash or Backslash?

cool info.

all i know is that "/" is the important one... it makes me able to browse directories in the terminal, as well as get to web pages in my browser.


"the bible is cooler than i thought.... most of the main characters get stoned!!!"
"let's get back to the good ol' days when the "opiate of the masses" was still actually opium."  -me
"kids don't beat me. i beat kids." -HJS
the above post is proudly antihammer

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#5 2005-02-09 3:08 pm

networkchair
Member
Registered: 2005-02-08
Posts: 2

Re: Slash or Backslash?

saddino wrote:

"So the backslash became that most useful of characters -- one nobody had used or preempted, just waiting there for a new use. The DOS system that Microsoft bought gave us that use in the directory mechanism!"

It could be that since DOS made the backslash popular, people began to think of it as the "right way" and the UNIX directory system (which URLs use) as the "opposite."  But the truth is: the  (/) is the slash (or "forward slash") and (\) is the backslash.

The forward slash "/" was on typerwriters (you know, those mechanical devices for creating text) long before there were computers.  I think we used it mostly for making fractions (as in 33 1/3 RPM and 99 44/100 % pure.)

As a DOS file separator I always hated the backslash because you had to use it a lot but it was never in the same place on any two keyboards.   But for ASCII art and text based diagrams it, along with the vertical bar and the hyphen, was indispensable.

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#6 2005-02-10 2:23 pm

Fracai
Evacipate
From: St. Elsewhere
Registered: 2000-05-25
Posts: 2844

Re: Slash or Backslash?

maybe dos and unix can get together, drink to forgiveness, and come to terms with each other some day.  on that glorious day paths will be denoted as |usr|local|bin and all will rejoice


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