• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • paul wheaton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Anne Miller
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Megan Palmer

When is a slash a backslash?

 
steward & author
Posts: 42869
Location: Left Coast Canada
15931
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Help me settle a debate.  Yes, we can google it, but actually, there's conflicting information so I thought I would go to a higher authority - permies.  

What are the names for / and \?

Also, if you can say where in the world you are, that would be great, as I suspect there's some regional variation.

 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 6319
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
3098
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
New York USA

/ - Slash
\ - Backslash
 
pollinator
Posts: 5520
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1520
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Yup, what Timothy said.

Of course these are human nicknames.

Their ASCII code determines how 'puters interpret them, and this matters a great deal.
 
gardener
Posts: 1416
Location: Tennessee
925
homeschooling kids urban books writing homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

r ranson wrote:Help me settle a debate.  Yes, we can google it, but actually, there's conflicting information so I thought I would go to a higher authority - permies.  

Comment of the week!

I LOVE that collectively we are a higher authority than Google. I always feel that way!

 
Douglas Alpenstock
pollinator
Posts: 5520
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1520
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
BTW, I never ask ooglie anything. It just keeps skewing, shilling and trying to sell me crap I don't need. Just give me data! but ooh nooh. My 2c.
 
r ranson
steward & author
Posts: 42869
Location: Left Coast Canada
15931
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I just write Google because it's shorter than duckduckgo.  
 
r ranson
steward & author
Posts: 42869
Location: Left Coast Canada
15931
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks for the help.
 
r ranson
steward & author
Posts: 42869
Location: Left Coast Canada
15931
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Anyone old enough to remember DOS operating system.

Was that the one with all the back slashes?
 
Douglas Alpenstock
pollinator
Posts: 5520
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1520
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I speak MS-DOS (or used to). It's been a while, but I think the syntax was slash.

I'm pretty sure it's the https internet universe that is backslash-horny.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
pollinator
Posts: 5520
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1520
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

r ranson wrote:I just write Google because it's shorter than duckduckgo.  


Haha, awesome!
 
Posts: 41
Location: Rocky Mountains
13
dog rabbit books medical herbs wood heat ungarbage
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

r ranson wrote: What are the names for / and \?
Also, if you can say where in the world you are, that would be great, as I suspect there's some regional variation.



In some system coding languages:
\ - backslash  (usually activates commands defined after the mark)
/ - forward slash (usually authorizes commands preceding the mark.)

(I am sure there are other great insights, but as for location, I have tested systems for companies around the world.)
 
steward
Posts: 17748
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4537
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
R Dell got it right!

My sister who majored in computer science always called the `/` a forward slash.
 
gardener
Posts: 2937
Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)
1493
homeschooling kids trees chicken food preservation building woodworking homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
There was a time and a place where it was a slash and a whack. Much easier to distinguish between. Today its more common to use forwardslash and backslash... or if you are like me and never remember whether the  forward/backward is referring to the top or bottom of the slash... I call it "the slash with the top leaning to the left" :)
 
gardener
Posts: 567
Location: The North
292
cat purity gear tiny house books bike fiber arts bee solar woodworking ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Does it lean forwards into the rest of the sentence / or backwards away from the rest of the sentence \ .
 
out to pasture
Posts: 12874
Location: Portugal
3898
goat dog duck forest garden books wofati bee solar rocket stoves greening the desert
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A half is one divided by two.

It is written as one 'over' two, which is very difficult to represent on an old fashioned typewriter (or even this modern laptop...)

So the slash would be used to represent the dividing line, thusly - 1/2

It's supposed to show that the one is over the two.

If you use a backslash, it would look like this 1\2, which sort of hints that it's the two over the one. Or it does to me, as I imagine the 2 sliding up the slopey line and the 1 sliding down it. Maybe my imagination is just a bit too weird...
 
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4597
Location: South of Capricorn
2582
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
the (forward) slash is the one that I can find on the keyboard without looking (with the question mark, right pinky finger) and use in writing and fractions, as Burra mentions....
The backslash is the one that's hiding together with the pipe, somewhere on the left, and I only use it in web addresses or other odd situations!
 
r ranson
steward & author
Posts: 42869
Location: Left Coast Canada
15931
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
20 or so years ago, I remember the backslash was really easy to find on a keyboard because I used it all the time.  It was that new at symbol I could never find.

What was I doing back then that needed frequent backslashing?  Basic? Qbasic?  One of the "newer" languages like c++ or pacaso (or whatever that was called).  Or something else?

Now it's really bugging me that I can't remember.
 
gardener
Posts: 1626
Location: Proebstel, Washington, USDA Zone 6B
1022
3
wheelbarrows and trailers kids trees earthworks woodworking
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
In Windows the backslash is used to differentiate folders. So whenever you were using DOS you would have used them a lot to open or save files.
 
I guess I've been abducted by space aliens. So unprofessional. They tried to probe me with this tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic