5 ms·

Even if we ignore solutions other languages have come up with, it's even worse that they landed on // for the syntax given that it's apparently used the same wa

by z_open 1y ago

Even if we ignore solutions other languages have come up with, it's even worse that they landed on // for the syntax given that it's apparently used the same way for real comments.

n42 1y ago
> it's even worse that they landed on // for the syntax .. it is using \\
- hinkley 1y ago
  I worked with browsers since before most people knew what a browser was and it will never cease to amaze me how often people confuse slash and backslash, / and \ It’s some sort of mental glitch that a number of people fall into and I have absolutely no idea why.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - Twey 1y ago
    I wonder if it's dyslexia-adjacent. Dyslexic people famously have particular difficulty distinguishing rotated and reflected letterforms.
    - hinkley 1y ago
      Could be. The frequency is such that it could be dyslexics. It's not all the time, but it's a steady rate of incidence.
      - quesera 1y ago
        I think in the 90's it was just people repeating a pattern they learned from Windows/DOS. It used to grate on my nerves to hear people say, e.g. "H T T P colon backslash backslash yahoo dot com". But I think they always typed forward slash, like they knew the correct slash to use based on the context, but somehow always spoke it in DOSish.
  - Mawr 1y ago
    I doubt those very people would confuse the two when presented with both next to each other: / \ / \. The issue is, they're not characters used day-to-day so few people have made the association that the slash is the one going this way / and not the one going the other way \. They may not even be aware that both exist, and just pick the first slash-like symbol they see on their keyboards without looking further.
IshKebab 1y ago
Yeah I agree \\ is not the best choice visually (and because it looks quite similar to // I would have probably gone with ` or something.
WCSTombs 1y ago
But those are two different slashes? \\ for strings and // for comments?

by z_open 1y ago

Even if we ignore solutions other languages have come up with, it's even worse that they landed on // for the syntax given that it's apparently used the same way for real comments.

n42 1y ago

> it's even worse that they landed on // for the syntax .. it is using \\

hinkley 1y ago
I worked with browsers since before most people knew what a browser was and it will never cease to amaze me how often people confuse slash and backslash, / and \ It’s some sort of mental glitch that a number of people fall into and I have absolutely no idea why.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Twey 1y ago
  I wonder if it's dyslexia-adjacent. Dyslexic people famously have particular difficulty distinguishing rotated and reflected letterforms.
  - hinkley 1y ago
    Could be. The frequency is such that it could be dyslexics. It's not all the time, but it's a steady rate of incidence.
    - quesera 1y ago
      I think in the 90's it was just people repeating a pattern they learned from Windows/DOS. It used to grate on my nerves to hear people say, e.g. "H T T P colon backslash backslash yahoo dot com". But I think they always typed forward slash, like they knew the correct slash to use based on the context, but somehow always spoke it in DOSish.
- Mawr 1y ago
  I doubt those very people would confuse the two when presented with both next to each other: / \ / \. The issue is, they're not characters used day-to-day so few people have made the association that the slash is the one going this way / and not the one going the other way \. They may not even be aware that both exist, and just pick the first slash-like symbol they see on their keyboards without looking further.

IshKebab 1y ago

Yeah I agree \\ is not the best choice visually (and because it looks quite similar to // I would have probably gone with ` or something.

WCSTombs 1y ago

But those are two different slashes? \\ for strings and // for comments?