3 ms·
DOS did not "invent" it's own path separator, directories were added to DOS long after command line flags, which already used slash, and COMMAND.COM already sup
by forgotusername 15y ago
DOS did not "invent" it's own path separator, directories were added to DOS long after command line flags, which already used slash, and COMMAND.COM already supported placing a flag immediately after a command name (without whitespace), making backwards compatibility with their own OS extraordinarily hacky to implement if not impossible.
Also please remember we're talking about the late 70s here. This is one of those annoyingly common vitriolic ideas about Microsoft, really tarnishes the reputation of this article as being well researched by appearing here.
- astine 15y agoThe author mentioned this: "IBM had decided to use the slash for command flags, eliminating Unix as a precedent, and the period was used between filename and filename extension, making it impossible to follow DEC's example."
- WalterBright 15y agoDEC also used periods to separate filename from extension. People forget that CPM's conventions (which were copied by CPM/86 and PC-DOS) were copied from DEC conventions. DEC operating systems were very, very popular at the time.