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But macOS uses '/' as a directory separator already. They're not going to arbitrarily change trivia like that -- at least, not short of killing the concept of
by ken 7y ago
But macOS uses '/' as a directory separator already. They're not going to arbitrarily change trivia like that -- at least, not short of killing the concept of a filesystem altogether. (True, if anyone was going to do that, Apple would, but APFS is brand new. That's not going anywhere.)
Apple isn't changing things just for the sake of change. They're removing 1970's-isms where they hold back the platform. Languages like Ruby/Python/Perl also clean house, from time to time, to remove old cruft. I can't imagine any legacy feature of macOS that Apple would want to deprecate which would make it more difficult to maintain a good port of Ruby/Python/Perl. These are regular general-purpose programming languages now, not just Unix scripting languages.
Yes, Unix has been one of the developer systems of choice for the past couple decades, but it wasn't always so, and it hasn't been the only one. I hear more developers than ever using and enjoying other systems like Windows (Powershell) today. Even Linux today is pretty far from traditional Unix. I just don't see perfect Unix compatibility as a necessary component like it was in 2001.
- saagarjha 7y ago> macOS uses '/' as a directory separator already Depends on what level of the UI you're dealing with.
- ardy42 7y ago> But macOS uses '/' as a directory separator already. IIRC, HFS actually uses a ':'.
- cynwoody 7y agoMac OS versions prior to OS X used ':'. Mac OS X, initially released on 24 March 2001, uses '/', like other Unix-derived systems. Also, like other unices, OS X uses '\n' as the line ending. Prior Mac OSs used '\r' as the line ending. Windows uses '\r\n'.
- codesnik 7y agobut in Finder you can use "/" in filenames, and can't use ":". They got swapped if you look on the file from Terminal.
- hestefisk 7y agoSimilar, HFS+ used to provide the option for case insensitivity. Both things were built in for legacy support reasons during the transition from OS 9 to X, as with Carbon.
- zwily 7y agoMacs still come with case insensitivity on by default.
- pjmlp 7y agoIn A/UX you could use both.
- VirtualAirwaves 7y agoExactly! The MacOS zealots love to bash Windows (Or "Windoze" as they all call it), but in reality their own house stinks.
- gsnedders 7y agoPretty sure HFS doesn't actually store any directory separator. A directory, after all, is just another file, each one containing its own children. Classic Mac OS used ":" when it needed to use something as a path separator.