Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator?

Re:Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator? by DonHopkins on Saturday May 25, 2019 @04:57AM (#20007838)

I accidentally found out something mind blowing about Mac OS/X recently:

The Finder apparently lets you use "/" in file names!

I expect you won't believe me, so try it.

Now look at the file in the shell with "ls".

Go figure!

Now who's unholy???

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Re:Why Does Windows Really Use Backslash as Path Separator? by thristian on Saturday May 25, 2019 @06:01AM (#20008080)

Classic Mac OS allowed filenames to contain every character except the directory-delimiter, ":".

When Mac OS X came around, it included a POSIX API and kernel (so applications expect to be able to use ":" in filenames), but used the same filesystem as Classic Mac OS which didn't allow ":" but did allow the POSIX directory separator "/", which POSIX apps wouldn't try to use in a filename. And so at some layer they were switched around - if you try to create a filename with "/" in the GUI, it's presented as ":" to POSIX; if a POSIX app creates a filename with ":" it shows up as "/" in the GUI.

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