All wrong. "/" was the options-switch-character in CP/M, which had no sub-directories. DECs and VAXes had nothing to do this decision, because only few humans had access to such machines. I even remember I had problems adapting to directory trees in MSDOS because files were kinda hidden and lost in a floppy directory.
Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
81–90 of 166 posts
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#82Where it says FileName.Extension[,Version] MONITR.EXE,4
What was the version used for? Did it track the changes?
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the third link: > (I still think the Multics path seperator looks more natural >etc>bin - too bad Unix diverted here) Looks more natural indeed. In fact it's visually similar to how paths are stylised in some file picker GUIs.
Yeah but imagine having to use Shift for every path separator you type.
Keyboards may have evolved differently to compensate. The location of non-alphanumeric characters wasn't so consistent back then.
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#84Probably the second most expensive mistake after 'null'. Discuss... :)
What 'null' mistake?
Tony Hoare apologising for inventing the null reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hoare#Apologies_and_retra...
> This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years.[26]
So much time, and therefore money, working around `\` escaping characters in file paths.
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
What special about NT kernel that's not in linux kernel ?
IOCP! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input/output_completion_port
Almost every time I talked to pseudo nt gurus, IOCP was mentioned as something nt did and linux don't. Now, io_uring seems to have finally closed the gap.
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
What special about NT kernel that's not in linux kernel ?
Proper support for paged kernel memory? Async-by-default I/O? Must better power management (compare win vs linux battery life on same hardware).
Bad power management is really manufacturers fault. See android phones or chromebooks that can last days without recharging.
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#87Where it says FileName.Extension[,Version] MONITR.EXE,4 What was the version used for? Did it track the changes?
I don't know about DEC-20, but on VMS, changing a file makes a copy with a new version number:
$ edit foo.txt
...
Ctrl-Z
$ dir
foo.txt;1
$ edit foo.txt
...
Ctrl-Z
$ dir
foo.txt;1 foo.txt;2
$ del foo.txt;
$ dir
foo.txt;1
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#88All wrong. "/" was the options-switch-character in CP/M, which had no sub-directories. DECs and VAXes had nothing to do this decision, because only few humans had access to such machines. I even remember I had problems adapting to directory trees in MSDOS because files were kinda hidden and lost in a floppy directory.
CP/M had them because of DEC, IIRC. Commands like "DIR" and "TYPE" are also indicative. And "PIP".
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
What special about NT kernel that's not in linux kernel ?
* It is (with a lot of ifs and buts) a microkernel * it is optimized for integration with third party software from people who don’t have the source, so for instance the driver model is interesting * the built in configuration system (the registry) and how it’s used throughout * the (underused) personalities system you can use to show different apis to different binaries * the security model is much more interesting,…
I'm very intrigued by that list. Any recommendations on where to read technical, internal details?
Re: Why is the DOS path character "\"? (2005)
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
* It is (with a lot of ifs and buts) a microkernel * it is optimized for integration with third party software from people who don’t have the source, so for instance the driver model is interesting * the built in configuration system (the registry) and how it’s used throughout * the (underused) personalities system you can use to show different apis to different binaries * the security model is much more interesting,…
I'm very intrigued by that list. Any recommendations on where to read technical, internal details?
Windows Internals 7th edition