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  3. I Propose We Rename \ and /

I Propose We Rename \ and /

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  • A AspDotNetDev

    Yeah, that's how I like to think of it, though it does take the assumption that it's leaning and not swinging.

    Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

    T Offline
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    TNCaver
    wrote on last edited by
    #50

    I never considered that someone might think of characters as hanging from a line of text, but that they are standing on the line. Funny how differently we all see the same things.

    If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

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    • R Rajeev Jayaram

      I remember it this way, bottom to top lean-forward, / - forward slash bottom to top lean-backward, \ - backslash

      P Offline
      P Offline
      PapaCraft
      wrote on last edited by
      #51

      I propose / Before \ After

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      • A AspDotNetDev

        A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

        \

        /

        Slide Slash

        Hill Slash

        Five Slash

        One Slash

        Negative Slash

        Positive Slash

        Fall Slash

        Rise Slash

        Other ideas?

        Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

        Y Offline
        Y Offline
        yacCarsten
        wrote on last edited by
        #52

        An old work colleague used to say / - slash \ - slosh

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        • A AspDotNetDev

          A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

          \

          /

          Slide Slash

          Hill Slash

          Five Slash

          One Slash

          Negative Slash

          Positive Slash

          Fall Slash

          Rise Slash

          Other ideas?

          Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

          D Offline
          D Offline
          dgcphfdgcphf
          wrote on last edited by
          #53

          I'm invoking gravity and english syntax. The falling forwards slash and the falling backwards slash.

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          • T Timothy Carroll

            How I teach: BACK slash is near the BACKspace. Done.

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            Steve Mayfield
            wrote on last edited by
            #54

            On my keyboard '/' is just to the left of the right shift key and '\' is on the right of the right shift key

            < > ?       |
            

            N M , . / SHIFT \

            Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am

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            • N Nikunj_Bhatt

              I read all the replies and also thought on RTL languages. Direction of writing could be different but not the direction itself. So, for everybody, right is right and left is left, top is top and bottom is bottom. Therefore, my suggestions are based on absolute directions: \ = TL (Top-Left) or LT (Left-Top) Slash / = BR (Bottom-Right) or RB (Right-Bottom) Slash However, more appropriate I think would be: / = NE (North-East) or EN (East-North) Slash \ = SW (North-West) or WN (West-North) Slash Or take the "North" common: / = E-Slash (NE Slash) \ = W-Slash (NW Slash) Also look at the keyboard; W and E keys are adjacent and W is at West side and E is at East side of each other!

              S Offline
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              Steve Mayfield
              wrote on last edited by
              #55

              my keyboard orientation: W is on the south side and E is on the North side :sigh:

              Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am

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              • R RogelioP EX DE HL

                AspDotNetDev wrote:

                Other ideas?

                \ Wax on / Wax off -- RP

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                A Offline
                AspDotNetDev
                wrote on last edited by
                #56

                You wax off leaning forward rather than leaning back? Tiny monitor? Low volume? :omg:

                Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

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                • E englebart

                  Some of your names are heavily biased toward left to right reading direction. If you are proposing new names, make them bidi agnostic. Remember that < is "greater than" for right to left readers. a < b "b is greater than a". How about / web slash, internet slash \ Windows slash If only keyboard makers would standardize and put them on the same key! Then we could have / - slash \ - shift+slash My nomenclature is / - slash (divide slash if other party is a programmer) \ - back slash Deep thought: Do right to left readers use left to right URLs?

                  A Offline
                  A Offline
                  AspDotNetDev
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #57

                  englebart wrote:

                  Some of your   names are heavily biased toward left to right reading direction

                  Are there variants of English that use right to left reading? Presumably different languages would have different names for the same character.

                  Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

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                  • R Rajeev Jayaram

                    I remember it this way, bottom to top lean-forward, / - forward slash bottom to top lean-backward, \ - backslash

                    M Offline
                    M Offline
                    Michael Kingsford Gray
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #58

                    All of the directional suggestions assume that things go from left to right. For people in cultures (such as Arabic) it is the reverse!

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                    • D DerekT P

                      This should probably spawn a thread of its own, but...

                      PIEBALDconsult wrote:

                      I am also reminded that some texts cross Os rather than 0s. :(

                      Surely way back when, coding was done in 1's and 0's (OK, and octal and hex). Nothing was crossed. Then when some pillock decided to expand things beyond binary and introduce Is and Os (amongst others) they had to be differentiated. I can't believe the entire binary/octal/hex coding community suddenly went from NOT crossing their zeroes to crossing them; surely for backwards compatibility the newcomers (Is and Os) would need the lines? Back in the 70s I started my full-time professional career writing COBOL onto coding sheets for the punch-girls to type up, and I'm sure we crossed either the 0s or the Os but I'm blowed if I can remember which!! (Though that's definitely when I started crossing my 7s to differentiate them from 1s, a habit I've kept to this day)... the Is had a straight serif top and bottom the 1s a single, sloping top serif, which if exaggerated did look like a 7)

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                      L Offline
                      lesNZ
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #59

                      Burroughs (who morphed into UNISYS) standard was initially to cross the alpha O. Until swamped by the rest of the world. And Unix used the forward slash / for directory paths etc, and the back slash as an escape character from memory. Still inclined to write paths with forward slash when on MS systems if distracted.

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                      • S Stefan_Lang

                        Hmm, on *my* keyboard it's next to the left shift key... ('/' is [shift]-7 on my keyboard, before you ask, or alternately on the numeric keypad (but don't think to make use of that, as some Laptops don't sport a numpad!) )

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                        Timothy Carroll
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #60

                        Clearly you aren't the target audience for those who are confused over which slash is which. I would venture to guess that most people who would be confused by slashiness have a fairly standard keyboard configuration where that pattern works, at least in the USA. OT (sorta): I can't stand it when I hear teevee or radio ads where they say "dubble-yoo dubble-yoo dubble-yoo dot stupid widget you don't want dot com BACKSLASH free thing" AGH! It just grates on my soul.

                        S 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • T Timothy Carroll

                          Clearly you aren't the target audience for those who are confused over which slash is which. I would venture to guess that most people who would be confused by slashiness have a fairly standard keyboard configuration where that pattern works, at least in the USA. OT (sorta): I can't stand it when I hear teevee or radio ads where they say "dubble-yoo dubble-yoo dubble-yoo dot stupid widget you don't want dot com BACKSLASH free thing" AGH! It just grates on my soul.

                          S Offline
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                          Stefan_Lang
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #61

                          Timothy Carroll wrote:

                          Clearly you aren't the target audience for those who are confused over which slash is which. I would venture to guess that most people who would be confused by slashiness have a fairly standard keyboard configuration where that pattern works, at least in the USA.

                          True enough :) I'm much more concerned about the rather common problem of manuals stating I should press '/', '^', or other non-trivial characters, but the program only takes keycodes and ignores the locale :mad: Even worse are programs that do recognize locale but use key-combos like [shift]-'>', assuming '>' is an unmodified keycode, when on my locale it's a modified one (I have to press [shift]-'<' to access the '>' symbol!) X| Of course, I can switch my keyboard to US, which would technically allow me to use all these keys as intended. But then I still have no idea where the individual keys are supposed to be, requiring me to look up the keyboard layout :~

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                          • A AspDotNetDev

                            A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

                            \

                            /

                            Slide Slash

                            Hill Slash

                            Five Slash

                            One Slash

                            Negative Slash

                            Positive Slash

                            Fall Slash

                            Rise Slash

                            Other ideas?

                            Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                            P Offline
                            P Offline
                            Perry Butler
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #62

                            Great Idea! Rise / Drop is quite possibly the shortest and most descriptive. Word compression to the max! Even after 10+ years of programming I still get backslash and forwardslash confused and I still have to explain to other people which is which. I usually say "above the Enter key" or "it's the question mark one".

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • A AspDotNetDev

                              A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

                              \

                              /

                              Slide Slash

                              Hill Slash

                              Five Slash

                              One Slash

                              Negative Slash

                              Positive Slash

                              Fall Slash

                              Rise Slash

                              Other ideas?

                              Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                              N Offline
                              N Offline
                              Nikunj_Bhatt
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #63

                              I am using computers since 1995 (17 years) and providing computer teaching since 2003 (9 years) but still I can't remember which is forward slash and which one is backward slash! I think, I can't remember it because I remember most of computer related things logically; and I couldn't find any natural logic behind saying one slash "forward" and another "backward". I have really came across many people who remember things logically like me and unable to name which slash has what name. So, I feel seriously that the slashes should be renamed logically. What about starting a movement online? First, we should decide based on voting that which name to use for which slash. And then all followers should start using those names every time they refers to slashes, creating a Wikipedia page, posting about it on forums, post in their social network, and in anyway - just spread it. Is the change possible? Would you like help in this change? What do you think?

                              K 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • A AspDotNetDev

                                A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

                                \

                                /

                                Slide Slash

                                Hill Slash

                                Five Slash

                                One Slash

                                Negative Slash

                                Positive Slash

                                Fall Slash

                                Rise Slash

                                Other ideas?

                                Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                                K Offline
                                K Offline
                                K Quinn
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #64

                                I get hell for calling them backslash and forwardslash

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • N Nikunj_Bhatt

                                  I am using computers since 1995 (17 years) and providing computer teaching since 2003 (9 years) but still I can't remember which is forward slash and which one is backward slash! I think, I can't remember it because I remember most of computer related things logically; and I couldn't find any natural logic behind saying one slash "forward" and another "backward". I have really came across many people who remember things logically like me and unable to name which slash has what name. So, I feel seriously that the slashes should be renamed logically. What about starting a movement online? First, we should decide based on voting that which name to use for which slash. And then all followers should start using those names every time they refers to slashes, creating a Wikipedia page, posting about it on forums, post in their social network, and in anyway - just spread it. Is the change possible? Would you like help in this change? What do you think?

                                  K Offline
                                  K Offline
                                  K Quinn
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #65

                                  It's based on the way english reads. If the top is to the left it's back, if the top 'points' right, it's forward, indicating direction.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • J Jecc

                                    \ : N-slash / : 7-slash Edit: better yet, Z-slash

                                    B Offline
                                    B Offline
                                    babaloomer
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #66

                                    This is the best proposition :thumbsup:. No confusion possible. It is also visually self-referential, at least as soon as you understand it or somebody explains it to you. I prefer Z-slash over 7-slash because both slashes are then identified by letters (N or Z).

                                    \ /
                                    N Z

                                    Brilliant. From this day on, I shall use this nomenclature!

                                    1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • A AspDotNetDev

                                      A coworker was recently confused about which slash was the backslash and which was the forward slash. I propose we rename them, perhaps to one of these:

                                      \

                                      /

                                      Slide Slash

                                      Hill Slash

                                      Five Slash

                                      One Slash

                                      Negative Slash

                                      Positive Slash

                                      Fall Slash

                                      Rise Slash

                                      Other ideas?

                                      Thou mewling ill-breeding pignut!

                                      C Offline
                                      C Offline
                                      CBadger
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #67

                                      \ - slash under backspace (Thus the BACKSLASH) / - ? slash next to the > (thus FORWARD SLASH) So i say leave it as is! :-D

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