[Tutor] EXE Problem

[Dave Angel]

On 06/19/2013 06:58 PM, Alan Gauld wrote:
> On 19/06/13 17:41, Jim Mooney wrote:
>
>> you should use forward slashes. I have no idea why Bill Gates thought
>> backslashes were kewl
>
> Because MS DOS was copying CP/M which didn't have directory paths
> (it was used with 180K floppy disks that stored everything at the top
> level) but did have command options that were indicated by a
> forward slash
>
> DIR /S
>
> was a sorted directory listing etc.
>
> So MS DOS inherited / as an options marker which precluded
> it's later use as a path separator...
>
>

MSDOS 2, which introduced subdirectories, also had a function to change 
the "switch character".  You could change it to "-" for example, and use 
"/" for a subdirectory delimiter.  But most programs (including many of 
Microsoft's own) ignored the feature, The operating system itself always 
supported both "/" and "\", but not some utilities like maybe DIR.

Also in those days, the head of the MSDOS architecture considered 
himself in competition with the head of XENIX (Unix) architecture.  So 
he resisted things that might have helped compatibility.

-- 
DaveA