On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 12:21:46 -0400, Mark E. Shoulson <mark@...> wrote:

> Besides, people who'd been working on computers already had backslashes
> pounded into their brains because they're what DOS/Windows use for
> directories, and so need to be "reminded" that even though they're
> typing on a computer, and even though the slashes seem to act as
> directory delimiters, they're still *forward* slashes (as in UNIX), not
> backslashes.

Indeed. Fairly sure I've cited the costly porcelain-enameled station signs
installed by the Boston-area MBTA: ("HYNES\ICA", "CHARLES\MGH").

Backslash story:

I'm mildly addicted to one of the local NPR (Nat'l. Public Radio)
stations, and one of their underwriters (must not call them advertisers :)
) was Computer Associates' Cleverpath. Its URL as read over the air was
"www.ca.com\cleverpath". Well, I thought the announcers were falling for
the backslash-confusion epidemic, and tried to help straighten out
matters. Have forgotten details, but I told them (little did I know!) that
the [URL] they were reading was almost guaranteed to fail.

I fired up the Big Security Risk, IE, and keyed in the URL with a [\]. To
my horror, it was accepted. Some other browsers rejected it, others
accepted it. When the station's news director also read the URL with a
[\], I realized something rather more complicated was afoot. I navigated
to the pages of the station's underwriters, and, surely enough, there was
the URL, inglorious [\] and all. I might have sent a message to CA about
it; they are software professionals to businesses, and it looked awfully
amateurish.

This situation with the announcers was something corresponding to
typesetter's ethics -- reading exactly what was on the page (not quite
"verbatim", but what one word includes all glyphs?).

Following that grim discovery, I probably sent another message to the
station, apologizing for making assumptions.

Cleverpath apparently was not especially clever, and that application
seems to have faded into obscurity. I have the feeling that that the
person who created and/or promoted Cleverpath somehow didn't advance
within CA.

===

Those who know the internal workings of MSDOS, truly well, point out that
an ordinary [/] can function internally as a directory delimiter, but that
some crucial function that's frequently used (I forget which) rejects a
[/], thus, in practice, it requires a [\] to be used routinely.

I tried to find the story of the invention of the [\], by Bob Bemer, but
since he's passed on, the only likely way to read it is via the WWWeb's
Wayback Machine (?), which I have not yet tried to do. He was an engaging
writer.

(Relative trivia: How do people read "www" aloud, a) in English, and b) in
other languages? I once heard a Public TV financial consultant call it
"triple-dub".
I suggest "hot-tip-triple-dub" for "http://www", but most often, it's safe
to assume an [http://] prefix.)

My regards to all,

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
The curious hermit -- autodidact and polymath
Pretty evening sky show: Go see!
<http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/26aug_sunset.htm>