From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ralph@inputplus.co.uk (Ralph Corderoy) Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 11:18:01 +0000 Subject: [TUHS] Dash options In-Reply-To: References: <201711280551.vAS5pDZt014974@darkstar.fourwinds.com> Message-ID: <20171128111801.C05F31F936@orac.inputplus.co.uk> Hi Andrew, > The thing that I wonder about was why ">" wasn't used as the directory > separator when paths were added to Unix, since that's what Multics > used. A slash has long been used to separate items in a hierarchy, e.g. division, department, staff initials, or account, purchase-order number, at least back to the early twentieth century. So choosing it might have seemed natural. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(punctuation)#Presenting_routes And Multics had some kind of `attach' and `detach' of I/O streams, well known to Ossanna, so perhaps dup(2), and a Thompson-shell syntax to go with it meant `>' was earmarked early on. -- Cheers, Ralph. https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy