Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!sharkey!metapyr!david
From: david@metapyr.UUCP (David Relson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: / as a dir delimiter
Message-ID: <219@metapyr.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 90 16:38:32 GMT
References: <16559@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Reply-To: david@metapyr.UUCP (David Relson)
Organization: Meta Systems, Ltd. -- Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 16

Early versions of DOS had a CONFIG.SYS option called SWITCHAR (switch
character).  Normally in DOS, switched are signaled by / (compared to - in
UNIX).  This option allowed setting the SWITCHAR to -.  Programs which 
used the SWITCHAR setting would then use - rather than /.  All of DOS's
file system calls (internal, INT level stuff) allow either / or \ so they
work as you would like.  So far everything seems pretty ok.

The gotcha is that very few programs ever checked SWITCHAR.  As I 
recall, some DOS utilities like LINK used it, but no other programs used 
it. 

Had Microsoft publicized SWITCHAR and used it consistently,  perhaps authors
of other programs would have used it.  This would enable what you want.

Bottom line, things WERE set up to support a user selectable delimiter, but
since nobody ever used the facility, you won't be able to do what you want.