Dr Baker Comments » Rant http://michael-baker.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:21:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 To slash or forward/slash – an open letter to BBC Feedback http://michael-baker.com/blog/2010/07/16/to-slash-or-forwardslash-an-open-letter-to-bbc-feedback/ http://michael-baker.com/blog/2010/07/16/to-slash-or-forwardslash-an-open-letter-to-bbc-feedback/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:32:23 +0000 Michael Baker http://michael-baker.com/blog/?p=154 There was a short item on today’s Feedback on BBC Radio 4 on the term “forward/slash”.

Here is my reply:

The error in Mr Love’s comments on today’s Feedback needs to be corrected.  Mr Love stated “there is no such  thing as slash”.

It would be more correct to say “there is no such thing as forward/slash”.

Before the advent of the operating systems CP/M, MS/DOS and then M/S Windows everyone was happy with slash (/) and backslash (\).

However backslash is used so frequently in Windows paths (filenames) that some think they need to say forward/slash when they are actually referring to slash, so that it is not confused with backslash.

My plea is that BBC return to normal usage and only use the terms slash and backslash.

Do away with the aberration of forward/slash.

The error in Mr Love’s comments on today’s Feedback needs to be corrected.  Mr Love stated “there is not  thing as slash”.
It would be more correct to say “there is no thing as forward/slash”.
Before the advent of the operating systems CP/M, MS/DOS and then M/S Windows everyone was happy with slash (/) and backslash (\).
However backslash is used so frequently in Windows paths (filenames) that some think they need to say forward/slash when they are actually referring to slash, so that it is not confused with backslash.
My plea is that BBC return to normal usage and only use the terms slash and backslash.
Do away with the aberration of forward/slash.

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