> the highest level--the root--of the [Unix] filesystem is always designated with the single character "/" and it always contains the same set of top-level dire

> the highest level--the root--of the [Unix] filesystem is always designated with the single character "/" and it always contains the same set of top-level directories [...] Note the obsessive use of abbreviations and avoidance of capital letters; this is a system invented by people to whom repetitive stress disorder is what black lung is to miners. Long names get worn down to three-letter nubbins, like stones smoothed by a river. -- Neal Stephenson, In The Beginning... Was The Command Line, 1999 But also note that sometimes the people who make these decisions later realise that they went too far: > Ken Thompson was once asked what he would do differently if he were redesigning the UNIX system. His reply: "I'd spell creat with an e." -- Kernighan & Pike, The UNIX Programming Environment, 1984