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11 June 2006

*sigh* BrainCrampFilter. Which is the back slash, and which is the forward slash? /? \?
/ = backslash
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 11 June | 13:42
Thank you. It's one of those things that when you start *thinking* about it it no longer makes any sense. I can still do "less than" and "greater than" though.
posted by JanetLand 11 June | 13:44
Except that's wrong. \ = backslash.
posted by Wolfdog 11 June | 13:55
The way I remember is that the backslash - \ - leans back towards the text and the forward slash - / - points away from the text.
posted by essexjan 11 June | 14:00
The back slash leans back: \

The forward slash leans forward: /

Like what essexjan said.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 11 June | 14:00
Hoo boy. I feel better now. Now, is it "feed a cold, starve a fever," or "starve a cold, feed a fever"?
posted by JanetLand 11 June | 14:17
it's feed both (but with a fever you usually lose your appetite) : >
posted by amberglow 11 June | 15:32
The ambiguity arises from "slash", which implies a movement, which implies a starting point. We think that we can determine which is which figuring out what "back" and "forward" mean in the context of a movement. Unfortunately, the starting point of the movement is ambiguous and so the terms are ambiguous. If "slash" were replaced with someone like "lean", then the terms wouldn't be ambiguous at all because "lean", unlike "slash", is absolute. Text is oriented both in top-to-bottom and left-to-right fashion and thus "lean", a word that has a real-world up-and-down orientation, has a definite English textual orientation. So "backlean" and "forwardlean" are immediately comprehensible and unambiguous.
posted by kmellis 11 June | 20:53
I thought it was drink a cold and smoke a fever. Or is it the other way around?
posted by birdherder 11 June | 21:26
Just remember that DOS uses the backslash, and UNIX and the WWW use the forward slash. So what you see in URLs is the forward slash.
posted by delmoi 11 June | 22:10
That's perfect delmoi! Thank you!
posted by JanetLand 12 June | 10:12
Shhhhh!!! || well that helps. =)

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