1/26/2024 0 Comments Backslash vs forward slashThe answer to this question is hidden in the mists of time, but I, your intrepid explorer, have braved the journey and returned to supply you with the One True Etymology for "backslash". So "backslash" is what people don't normally use" "\". So that's what I use to remember "slash" - it's what people normally use: "/". 10, 14/24 street, Section 14, Petaling Jaya. I don't really know much about your culture but for me slashes are what we use to write dates and street addresses: date: So, if backslash means reverse-slash, how to know which direction "slash" slants to? It is with reference to slash that the word "back" was applied. The original name for "forward slash" was simply "slash". It only came about retroactively after the term "backslash" was coined. Technically, "forward slash" did not exist. The word "back", apart from meaning the opposite of forward, actually itself can simply mean "the opposite direction". But in terms of direction, the word "back" has two meaning: You are apparently using the direction of writing, that is to say from left to right, to apply the word "back" to. Or rather, the wrong reference frame to apply the word "back" to. The reason you're confused is because you're using the wrong definition of "back". Slash, slosh, backslant, downhill, backwhack, and in rare occasions,īash, reverse slant, and reversed virgule It is sometimes called a hack, whack, escape (from C/UNIX), reverse So, it has nothing to do with leaning back or forward, but it was originally conceived as just the remaining part of the logical disjunction/ conjunction math signs, and while its real name is reverse solidus, it has many different names besides back slash Programming language supplied with Unix V6, Unix V7 and more currently (OR) could be composed in ASCII as "/\" and "\/" respectively.īoth these operators were included in early versions of the C The \ was introduced so that the ALGOL boolean operators ∧ (AND) and ∨ It was initially created to represent signs in ALGOL language that functioned as AND and OR operatorsīob Bemer introduced the "\" character into ASCIIon September 18,ġ961,as the result of character frequency studies. This character has many different names, and back slash is just the oposite of slash, nothing else. The name forward slash therefore subsequently became needed to disambiguate the name for the earlier character. So it is clear that the name backslash was introduced to indicate a novel character that was the reversed version of a long established character. No slashes or backslashes in moveable type typography? But note the comma.ĪSR-32 teleprinter for Telex, CC BY 2.0, Arnold Reinholdġ963 - American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)Īmerican Standards Association (ASA) X3.4 subcommittee / slant So his fonts did not have slashes, only commas. I believe that the earliest movable-type printing presses, as used by Johannes Gutenberg used commas in some situations where we would today normally use slashes. I have also seen the reverse stated, that the slash is derived from the comma. The modern comma was first used by Aldus Manutius The mark used today is descended from a diagonal slash, or virgula suspensiva ( / ), used from the 13th to 17th centuries to represent a pause. It is easy to find history linking the two. The comma serving much the same role as the slash (or solidus) in 10/6. In some European countries it is normal to use the comma where others use a decimal point - to separate whole units from decimal fractions. Both have been used to separate items of text or to separate numbers with different units. The history of the slash and the comma are intimately intertwined. The Medieval comma, Johannes Gutenberg and Aldus Manutius There was a need to disambiguate slash for people who didn't learn about computers in a formal teaching context. The name "forward slash" has probably evolved since the general public started to use computer keyboards incorporating two characters that look like a slash. The reversed version therefore acquired the more informal name back-slash to indicate a reversed form of slash. The slash (or solidus) was around for a very very long time before the reversed version was invented. Note common first letter abbreviations s and d were used in Britain (also £ is L for Latin libra). Or in the British case: shillings and pence. The solidus mark probably indicates the first number is units of solidus, the second of denarius. This name comes from Latin and was associated with coinage - hence (I guess) it's use in writing down prices in older currencies: 10/6 was quite a common notation for prices in British currency pre-decimalisation. The slash character came first, with a different formal name solidus. Ancient slash → new back-slash → disambiguating retronym forward slashĪncient Roman coins - Solidus and Denarius.
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