From: Bob Showalter <bob_showalter@...>
Date: 2005-12-30T06:48:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Path Separator and Windows

Justin Johnson wrote:
> Is there a reason File::SEPARATOR isn't set to \ to begin with for 
> Windows?  Even if the Windows API accepts a /, \ is standard for the 
> Windows command line and executing commands with / in paths passed as 
> args fails.  Of course I can just do my own substitutions, but it seems 
> like this could be improved.

I'm not sure why it works the way it does; perhaps Matz will weigh in. 
If you look at the source (file.c), the whole business is really quite 
messy.

How did DOS (and then Windows) ever decide to use backslash I wonder?

And a pox on "drive letters" while we're at it! :-)

The Unix approach seems so much more logical to me...