Re: Removed forward slash?

["Kai Großjohann" <Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE>]

François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> But such things pass.  I remember when `logiciel' and `matériel' were
> introduced to translate `software' and `hardware', how pedant they were
> sounding.  The closest opponents were `mentaille' and `quincaille',
> appearing equally debatable at the time, but which would look utterly
> ridiculous nowadays.  What is pedant or not depends on moving fashion.

I don't know any French, but I do know that the Academie Française
(sp?) tries to keep foreign words out of the language (I think).  Thus
`ordinateur' rather than `computer'.

Right.  After we have established how little I know, let me admit even
more ignorance: what is it that people use nowadays?
Hardware/software or logiciel/matériel or mentaille/quincaille?
Somehow, I couldn't glean this from your message...

And what's French for slash and backslash?

I think Italian and German are a head-to-head race concerning the
lengths of the words used for stuff.  We have `Schrägstrich' for
`slash' (literally: slanted dash) and I'm not at all sure whether
`umgekehrter Schrägstrich' or `Rückwärtsschrägstrich' is used for
`backslash'.

But at least we have `Auspuff' which is a suitably onomatopoeitic
(sp?) word for exhaust pipe :-)  (`Aus' means `out' and `puff' is
pronounced like `poof'.)

kai
-- 
Life is hard and then you die.