I Propose We Rename \ and /
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I remember it this way, bottom to top lean-forward, / - forward slash bottom to top lean-backward, \ - backslash
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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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)
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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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!) )
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.
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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.
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 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?
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".
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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?
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?
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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?
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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?
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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 ZBrilliant. From this day on, I shall use this nomenclature!
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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?