Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator?
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2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderWe should all just be grateful they didn't copy the file and drive conventions from TRSDOS which was the operating system for Tandy's TRS-80 line of computers. Like MS-DOS file names were 8 characters with a 3 character extension however the extension was separated not with a period but a forward slash. Also files could have a password which was separated from the name/ext by a period. Disk drives we're referenced by numbers, 0-7, and separated from the name/ext.password by…
The article is slightly misleading about the usage of the forward slash in CP/M. It is true that the CP/M operating system itself did not use the forward slash, but the only reason for that was that the operating system included only a handful of executable programs, the main being the equivalents of the later "COMMAND.COM", "DEBUG.COM" and "COPY.COM" of Microsoft. The very few executable programs provided with the OS did not have any command-line options. A few of the…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 395
- Total comments
- 269
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-05-24 | Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator?First breakout · Best thread | Narishma | 271 | 204 |
| 2022-02-27 | Why Does Windows Use Backslash as Path Separator? | hwayne | 4 | 0 |
| 2022-02-28 | Why Does Windows Use Backslash as Path Separator? (2019)Latest 20+ point return | susam | 120 | 65 |