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Subject:Re: slashes, UNIX, and Windows From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 13 Jun 1997 01:28:50 -0800
On Thu, 12 Jun 1997 14:04:21 -0500, Chris Hamilton wrote:
>I'm writing documentation for a distributed development environment. It
>will run in UNIX and Windows environments. I have to show some
>configuration that includes paths. The problem with that is, slashes go
>one way in UNIX and the othe way in Windows. We're looking for a way to
>represent paths in a way that wouldn't be platform specific. It seems
>mutually exclusive.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas about a way to display this without
>specifying one operating system or another? (I don't think a tree view
>would work.)
And why not be platform-specific? How about an annotation, either as a
footnote, an entry in the glossary, an "IMPORTANT!" reminder at the
beginning - whatever is appropriate for your format - stating, perhaps,
that while examples shown are of the style used by one system, the
other system uses the opposite style.
Then again, most people who use Unix are familiar enough with the
command-line shell to know enough to realize that the slashes need to
be reversed, while your average Windows user thinks Unix is a new type
of candy bar. Using the Windows format of \backslashes\ (or should
that be, \backsl~1\?) is probably a safe enough way to go, with perhaps
a footnote or opening mention that forward slashes are used instead in
the Unix environment.
If you want to really confuse them, point out that OS/2 recognizes both
styles in pathnames (at least, the main command interpreter does - some
programs' command line options may not).
Your friend and mine,
Matt
<insert standard disclaimer here>
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