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The backslash as path separator didn't come from CP/M (it also didn't have directories at the time). The forward slash couldn't be used because it was already
by wvenable 5y ago
The backslash as path separator didn't come from CP/M (it also didn't have directories at the time). The forward slash couldn't be used because it was already heavily used for command-line switches in DOS 1.0 applications. That choice was likely copied from DEC TOPS-10 which many Microsoft employees would have been using.
Microsoft apparently wanted to break compatibility and use the forward slash, and even coded for the possibility by making the switch character configurable in the CONFIG.SYS of DOS 2.0, but IBM was against it.
- naikrovek 5y agoDOS 1.0 used forward slashes for arguments because CP/M did the same. DOS 1.0 was almost an exact copy of CP/M, changing only a few small things, which is why it didn't support directories, either. DOS 2 needed to be compatible with DOS 1, and DOS 1 needed to be able to run CP/M programs in order to capture the business it was gaining at that point, so DOS 2 kept what DOS 1 had, and so on. all the way up to Windows 11 today. The backslash didn't come from CP/M, as I said. it came because they needed a directory separator for DOS 2, and being visually similar to the UNIX directory separator character (a simple diagonal line), the backslash was chosen. so, as I said earlier (very poorly, looking back), the backslash was chosen because of CP/M, but was not copied from it.
- dboreham 5y agoTrue, but none of these things began with CP/M or DOS. They were present in systems from the 60's. "pip" for example was in RSX-11, and probably didn't originate there either.
- wvenable 5y agoCP/M didn't use the slash for arguments. Slashes as arguments in PC operating systems seemed to start with PC-DOS 1.0. And even then, the number of included programs with arguments could be counted on one hand.