From: norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson)
Subject: [TUHS] Slashes (was: MS-DOS)
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2016 07:25:34 -0400 (EDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20160708112534.B13184422B@lignose.oclsc.org> (raw)
Steffen Nurpmeso:
...and that actually makes me wonder why the engineers that
created what became POSIX preferred slash instead -- i hope it is
not the proud of high skills in using (maybe light) sabers that
some people of the engineer community seem to foster. But it
could be the sober truth. Or, it could be a bug caused by
inconsideration. And that seems very likely now.
====
It had nothing to do with engineers. `Slash' for / has been
conventional American usage for as long as I can remember,
dating back well before POSIX or UNIX or the movie that made
a meme of light sabers.
It's unclear exactly how far back it dates. The earliest
OED citation for `slash' as `A thin sloping line, thus /'
is dated 1961; but the cite is from Webster's 3rd.
Given the amount of violence prevalent in American metaphor,
it is hardly noteworthy.
Make American Language Violent Again (and I HATE MOSQUITOS*).
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
* If you don't know what this refers to, you probably don't
want to know.
next reply other threads:[~2016-07-08 11:25 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 42+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-07-08 11:25 Norman Wilson [this message]
2016-07-08 13:16 ` John Cowan
2016-07-08 14:06 ` Brantley Coile
2016-07-10 18:26 ` [TUHS] Slashes Adam Sampson
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2016-07-10 1:41 [TUHS] Slashes (was: MS-DOS) Norman Wilson
2016-07-10 1:46 ` Steve Nickolas
2016-07-10 1:52 ` John Cowan
2016-07-12 17:53 ` Tim Bradshaw
2016-07-12 18:05 ` Ronald Natalie
2016-07-13 9:24 ` Wesley Parish
2016-07-13 10:09 ` Joerg Schilling
2016-07-10 21:10 ` Sven Mascheck
2016-07-08 17:36 Norman Wilson
2016-07-08 14:52 Clem Cole
2016-07-08 14:59 ` Clem Cole
2016-07-08 15:47 ` Nemo
2016-07-08 16:31 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2016-07-08 20:29 ` Clem Cole
2016-07-08 16:27 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2016-07-08 18:00 ` Steve Nickolas
2016-07-08 18:23 ` Random832
2016-07-08 20:49 ` Clem Cole
2016-07-08 21:09 ` Ron Natalie
2016-07-08 21:16 ` John Cowan
2016-07-08 21:45 ` Ron Natalie
2016-07-09 16:47 ` Dave Horsfall
2016-07-09 17:03 ` John Cowan
2016-07-09 17:21 ` Milo Velimirovic
2016-07-02 0:12 [TUHS] MS-DOS Norman Wilson
2016-07-02 1:13 ` Steve Nickolas
2016-07-07 5:02 ` [TUHS] Slashes (was: MS-DOS) Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-07-07 13:43 ` Nemo
2016-07-07 14:11 ` John Cowan
2016-07-07 14:18 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2016-07-07 23:47 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-07-08 5:40 ` scj
2016-07-08 7:06 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-07-08 11:09 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2016-07-09 0:03 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-07-09 14:24 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2016-07-09 16:38 ` John Cowan
2016-07-11 11:20 ` Tony Finch
2016-07-11 11:54 ` Nemo
2016-07-11 13:15 ` Joerg Schilling
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