The format of filename

[Tim Chase]

>> Some experimentation shows that Python does seem to provide
>> *some* translation. Windows lets me use '/' as a path separator,
>> but not as the name of the root of a partition name. But perhaps
>> this a peculiarity of the commands themselves, and not of Windows
>> path names in particular.
>>
>>  C:\PYTHON24>CD /
>>  The syntax of the command is incorrect.
>>  
>>  C:\PYTHON24>CD \
>>  C:\>EDIT /PYTHON24/README
>>  The syntax of the command is incorrect.
> 
> The Windows APIs all accept either forward slashes or back, and have done
> so clear back to Windows 3.0.  However, the Windows command shells do not.
> That's what you're seeing here.

What one finds is that the command-shell is self-inconsistant:

C:\temp>md foo
C:\temp>md foo\bar
C:\temp>cd foo/bar
C:\temp\foo\bar>cd ..
C:\temp\foo>cd ..
C:\temp>cd /foo/bar
C:\temp\foo\bar>cd \temp
C:\temp>md foo/baz
The syntax of the command is incorrect
C:\temp>echo dir > foo/bar/pip
C:\temp>echo dir > /foo/bar/pip
The system cannot find the path specified.
C:\temp>dir foo/bar
Parameter format not correct - "bar".
C:\temp>dir /b foo\bar
pip
C:\temp>type foo/bar/pip
The syntax of the command is incorrect.
C:\temp>type foo\bar\pip
dir
C:\temp>cmd < foo/bar/pip
[directory listing within a subshell]
C:\temp>cmd < /foo/bar/pip
The system cannot find the path specified.


The CD, MD, TYPE, ECHO and redirection are all shell-builtins, 
yet they seem to be conflictingly quasi-smart about forward slashes.

Sometimes leading slashes matter.  Sometimes they don't. 
Sometimes forward slashes are acceptable.  Sometimes they aren't. 
  All within the shell's built-in mechanisms.  Go figure.

-tkc