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Re:Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator? by yarrel on Friday May 24, 2019 @05:06PM (#20005286)
iirc: The Mac colon convention wasn't really baked in at the API level. It was used in displaying paths but not really in manipulating them.
Re:Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator? by kalleboo on Friday May 24, 2019 @10:11PM (#20006699)
Correct. While it was possible to use file paths, it was highly encouraged to use file system references and store alias structures.

This enabled Mac-like behavior like letting you rename and move around files (even open ones) without apps losing track of them, supporting network share auto-mounting, etc.

Re:Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator? by eschaton on Friday May 24, 2019 @10:19PM (#20006725)
Nope, most Mac filesystem APIs would interpret : in a name as a path component. There was even an equivalent to the current working directory. No system-supported :: traversal syntax though.