Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!sun!smile!alanf
From: alanf%smile@Sun.COM (Alan Fargusson @ peace with the world)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: pathnames
Message-ID: <89567@sun.uucp>
Date: 13 Feb 89 19:16:01 GMT
References: <2569@pegasus.ATT.COM> <3847@cbnews.ATT.COM> <662@mks.UUCP> <19480@santra.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 13


There is a small miss-conception here.  MS-DOS allows both forward
and backward slants in path names.  It is command.com that takes
the forward slant, so you cannot use it unless you change the switchchar.
Programs should be coded to allow both.  It is actually valid to combine
both in one path name.

A little history: command.com is designed to look like the CP/M command
interpreter which uses the forward slant as a switchchar.  Remember that
MS-DOS 1.X did not have a hierarchal file system, so there was no conflict.
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Alan Fargusson		Sun Microsystems
alanf@sun.com		..!sun!alanf