On 2007-08-31, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Neil > Cerutti wrote: >> Keeping in mind which came first, isn't it at least as >> accurate to attribute this problem to Python's choice of >> escape character? > > No, it's Microsoft's fault. The use of backslash as an escape > character goes back to Unix systems in the early 1970s--long > before Microsoft came on the scene. > > When Microsoft introduced MS-DOS 1.0 in 1981, it didn't have > directory hierarchies. Commands used the slash character to > delimit options. Then when MS-DOS 2.0 introduced subdirectories > in 1983, they decided they couldn't use the slash as the path > separator, so they used the backslash instead. That has been a > source of confusion ever since then.
Going back and checking the Python History page, it seems I was off by four years with when I thought Python was first released (I was thinking 1995, when the first release was actually 1991). That makes Python's choice of escape character way more practical than I thought, since Microsoft hadn't yet conquered the desktop computing world when Python was in it's infancy. That strange whirring sound is me backpedaling furiously. Thanks very much for all your patiences. -- Neil Cerutti If you throw at someone's head, it's very dangerous, because in the head is the brain. --Pudge Rodriguez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
