Re: The problem With Windows

On 24 Mar 2024 20:27:03 GMT, rbowman wrote:

I would like to hang the backslash guy but the blame is spread thin.

Back then, MS-DOS was still using the CP/M convention of “/” for marking
command options. This was in turn copied by Gary Kildall from the DEC
operating systems he was exposed to while developing CP/M.

E.g. on a DEC system, you might type

    DIR

for a brief directory listing, or

    DIR/FULL

to get all the gory details.

So imagine if you used “/” as a path separator, then trying to get info
on, e.g. a file named “MY/FILE” by

    DIR MY/FILE

would likely result in a syntax error from the DIR command not recognizing
the /FILE option.