# Why is the DOS path character "\"? – Larry Osterman's WebLog - Host: [blogs.msdn.microsoft.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/) - Saved: October 30, 2017 (2017-10-31T02:12:47Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/4b2a48086c01/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/4b2a48086c01.json ## What Jamie wrote I get a huge kick out of stuff like this. The best part is at the end! The DOS developers were so used to using "/" on their workstations that they built support into DOS to allow either "/" or "\", which I have seen. However, I had no idea early versions allows the switch character to be set to "-"! ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Appears in - [WT26: Weekly Thing for November 4, 2017](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/26/), Links 📌 ## Same host - [The largest Git repo on the planet | Brian Harry's blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/66f2d80d83bf/) (blogs.msdn.microsoft.com, May 25, 2017) - [Introducing the Python Language Server – Python at Microsoft](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2a9c316d8291/) (blogs.msdn.microsoft.com, July 26, 2018) ## Saved the same week - [Hyper - JS/HTML/CSS Terminal](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/bb50de60d3de/) (hyper.is, October 30, 2017) - [Miniflux - Minimalist RSS Reader](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3144309d9f6f/) (miniflux.net, October 30, 2017) - [Apple's iPhone X: The First Field Report | WIRED](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6c3a1b0272c6/) (wired.com, October 30, 2017) - [iOS 11.2 Bringing (some of) SiriKit to HomePod — 512 Pixels](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/71232b15a4ca/) (512pixels.net, October 30, 2017) - [sonar, a linting tool for the web](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/382f8de520e3/) (sonarwhal.com, October 30, 2017) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/06/24/why-is-the-dos-path-character/