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.
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.