A slash or stroke, /, is a punctuation mark. It is also called an oblique, diagonal, separatrix, virgule, scratch comma, slant, or forward slash. It appears similar to a solidus or shilling mark, which is a separate character. This section needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ...

Usage

History

This symbol goes back to the days of ancient Rome. In the early modern period, in the Fraktur script, which was widespread through Europe in the Middle Ages, one slash (/) represented a comma, while two slashes (//) represented a dash. The two slashes eventually evolved into a sign similar to the equals sign (=), then being further simplified to a single dash (–). Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... The German word Fraktur (pronounced in IPA) refers to a specific blackletter typeface. ... For other uses, see Comma. ... A dash is a punctuation mark, and is not to be confused with the hyphen, which has quite different uses. ... The equal sign, equals sign, or = is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. ...

English language

The most common use is to replace the hyphen or en dash to make clear a strong joint between words or phrases, such as "the Hemingway/Faulkner generation". Yet very often it is used to represent the concept or, especially in instruction books. This article is about the punctuation mark. ... A dash is a punctuation mark, and is not to be confused with the hyphen, which has quite different uses. ...

The symbol also appears in the hybrid formation and/or, a prose representation of the logical concept of disjunction. Logical disjunction (usual symbol or) is a logical operator that results in true if either of the operands is true. ... OR logic gate. ...

The virgule is also used to indicate a line break when quoting multiple lines from a poem, play, or headline. In this case (and only in this case), a space is placed before and after the virgule. For example: "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom". This article is about the art form. ... For other uses, see Play (disambiguation). ... A headline is text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it. ...

In an ordinary prose quotation, such a spaced virgule is sometimes used to represent the start of a new paragraph.

British English particularly makes use of this alternation with a hyphen in forming abbreviations. Many examples are found in writings during the Second World War. For example, 'S/E' means 'single-engined', as a quick way of writing a type of aircraft. And in the US, "O/O" is used by trucking firms or taxicabs to mean "owner-operator" (or "owned and operated by"). Notice that the phrase has a hyphen, whereas the abbreviation uses the slash.

The slash is often used, perhaps incorrectly, to separate the letters in a two-letter initialism such as R/C (short for radio control) or w/o (without). Purists strongly discourage this newer use of the symbol. However, since other uses of the slash with individual characters are highly context-specific, confusion is not likely to arise. Other examples include b/w (between or, sometimes, black and white), w/e (whatever, also weekend or week ending), i/o (input-output), and r/w (read-write). Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

There are usually no spaces on either side of a slash or virgule. Typical exceptions are in representing the start of a new lines when quoting verse, or a new paragraph when quoting prose, etc. The Chicago Manual of Style (at 6.112) also allows spaces when either of the separated items is a compound that itself includes a space: Our New Zealand / Western Australia trip. (Compare use of an en dash used to separate such compounds.) The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is a style guide for American English published by the University of Chicago (from which it receives its name). ... A dash is a punctuation mark, and is not to be confused with the hyphen, which has quite different uses. ...

Arithmetic

The solidus and virgule are distinct typographic symbols with decidedly different uses. The solidus is significantly more horizontal than the virgule. The character found on standard keyboards is the virgule and while most people lump the two characters together (and when there is no alternative it is acceptable to use the virgule in place of the solidus), they are different. The solidus is used in the display of ratios and fractions as in constructing a fraction using superscript and subscript as in “¹²³⁄₄₅₆”; the virgule is used for essentially any other textual purpose. A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ...

Bowling

A slash is typically used to denote a spare, knocking down all ten pins in two throws, when scoring ten-pin bowling, candlepin bowling and duckpin bowling. Tenpin is also the name of a chain of ten-pin bowling complexes in the United Kingdom. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A Duckpin bowling ball Duckpins in relation to the ball Duckpin bowling is a form of bowling that is popular along the eastern coast of the United States, from Virginia through the south coast of New England, and in Quebec. ...

Computing

Files

On Unix-like systems, the slash carries two distinct meanings. Its primary use, as with URLs, is to separate directory and file components of a path: Diagram of the relationships between several Unix-like systems A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. ... A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ...

pictures/image.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_%28punctuation%29

A leading slash however represents the root directory of the virtual file system; it is used when specifying absolute paths: A virtual file system (VFS) or virtual filesystem switch is an abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. ...

/home/joe/pictures/image.jpg

It is sometimes called a "forward slash" to contrast with the backslash , which MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows systems also accept as a path delimiter. The slash would have been the preferred path delimiter, but MSDOS 2 added the backslash to allow paths to be typed into the command shell while retaining compatibility with CP/M—before directories were supported—where the slash was chosen as the command-line option indicator. For instance to list with the "wide" option the directory d on your current disk: First introduced in 1960 by Bob Bemer , the backslash, , is a typographical mark (glyph) used chiefly in computing. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... Windows redirects here. ... CP/M was an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ...

dir /w d

In DOS and Windows, neither the slash nor the backslash is permitted in the name of a file or directory. Although the underlying operating system supports either character as the path delimiter, some software programs do not accept the slash as a path delimiter.

Some people incorrectly refer to a slash as a "backslash", for instance when reading URLs out loud. It should be noted that when reading URLs out loud it is never necessary to specify "forward slash" or "backward slash" as there is only one type of slash (/) ever used in a URL. (Radio announcers and advertisers often use the term "forward slash" where "slash" would be correct, not realizing that CP/M and MS-DOS are history.

Chat

Many Internet Relay Chat and in-game chat clients use the slash to distinguish commands, such as the ability to join or part a chat room or send a private message to a certain user. The slash has also been used in many chat mediums as a way of expressing an action or statement in the likeness of a fake command. “IRC” redirects here. ...

/join #services – to join channel "#services"

/me sings a song about birds.

/endrant

“IRC” redirects here. ...

Programming

In computer programming, the slash corresponds to Unicode and ASCII character 47, or 0x002F. Note that the ISO and Unicode.org both designate this character as the “SOLIDUS”, while calling the solidus “FRACTION SLASH”, in direct contradiction to long-established English typesetting terminology. It is used in the following settings: “Programming” redirects here. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image:ASCII fullsvg There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F, or a–f. ... A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

• In most programming languages, / is used as a division operator,
• Comments in C, C++, C#, Java, PHP, and CSS begin with /* (a slash and an asterisk), and end with */ (the same characters in the opposite order).
• C99, C++, C#, and Java also have comments that begin with // (two slashes) and span a single line.
• In HTML and XML, a slash is used to indicate a closing tag. For example, in HTML, </em> ends a section of emphasized text that had been started with <em>.
• Slashes are used as the standard delimiters for regular expressions, although other characters can be used instead.
• Slashes are sometimes used to show italics, when no special formatting is available. Example: /Italic text/

A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer. ... C is a general-purpose, block structured, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ... C++ (pronounced see plus plus, IPA: ) is a general-purpose programming language with high-level and low-level capabilities. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... “Java language” redirects here. ... For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ... In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ... The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the original edition that served for many years as an informal specification of the language The C programming language is a low_level standardized programming language developed in the early 1970s by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX... C++ (pronounced see plus plus, IPA: ) is a general-purpose programming language with high-level and low-level capabilities. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. ... In computing, a regular expression is a string that is used to describe or match a set of strings, according to certain syntax rules. ...

Dates

Certain shorthand date formats use / as a delimiter, for example "9/16/2003" (in United States usage) or in most other countries "16/9/2003" September 16, 2003. is the 259th day of the year (260th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In Britain there was a specialized use in prose: 7/8 May referred to the night which starts the evening of 7 May and ends the morning of 8 May, totalling about 12 hours depending on the season. This was used to list night-bombing air-raids which would carry past midnight. Some police units in the US use this notation for night disturbances or chases. Conversely, the form with a hyphen, 7-8 May, would refer to the two-day period, at most 48 hours. This would commonly be used for meetings. is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The International Standard ISO 8601, in attempting to resolve this ambiguity, introduced problems of its own. According to this norm, dates must be written year-month-day using hyphens, but time periods are written as two standard dates separated by a slash: 1939-09-01/1945-05-08, for example, would be the duration of the Second World War in the European theatre, while 09-03/12-22 might be used for a fall term of a Western school, from September third to December twenty-second. Instead of the slash in some applications a double hyphen is used, e.g. 1939-09-01--1945-05-08, which would allow the use of the duration in filenames. ISO 8601 is an international standard for date and time representations issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ...

Fiction

For a specialized use of the slash in the titles of fan fiction stories, see slash fiction.

The slash has been used as the title of a novel by Greg Bear, / (Slant). The "Slant" was added on to give people something to call the book, but it has ultimately become the accepted title in many book lists. Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. ... The symbolic slash, used to separate the two names in a romantic pairing, from which slash fiction takes its name. ... Gregory Dale Bear (born August 20, 1951) is a science fiction author. ...

The Slash is also the symbol for a wand in NetHack. This article is about the role-playing game. ...

Linguistics

Slashes are used to enclose a phonemic transcription of speech. In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ... Bold text This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Physics

In physics, a slash through a symbol, like is shorthand for a^μγ_μ A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... Shorthand is an abbreviated, symbolic writing method that improves speed of writing or brevity as compared to a normal method of writing a language. ...

Proofreading

When highlighting corrections on a proof, a copy editor will either write what he thinks should be changed—or why it should be changed—in the margin. He separates his comments with a slash called a separatrix.

In addition, when marking an uppercase letter for conversion to lowercase, an editor will put a slash through it and write lc or l/c in the margin.

Other alternations with hyphen

Besides the varied usage with dates, the slash is used to indicate a range of serial numbers which have the hyphen already as part of their alphanumeric symbol set. The primary example is the US Air Force serial numbers for aircraft. These are usually written, for example, as "85-1000", for the thousandth aircraft ordered in fiscal year 1985 (which appears on the tail of the aircraft as 51000, it being assumed that the aircraft will be worn out by 1995). To designate a series of serial numbers, the slash is used, as in 85-1001/1050 for the first fifty subsequent aircraft.

Alternative names

Sometimes the slash is called stroke (and oblique stroke) , although that may be confused with the hyphen. Stroke is most commonly used among the North American amateur radio community. Amateur radio station with modern solid-state transceiver featuring LCD display and DSP capabilities Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is a hobby that uses various types of radio broadcasting equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training. ...

List of terms for the character include, Common: slash; stroke; <slant>; forward slash. Rare: diagonal; solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat].[1] Look up slash in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Stroke (disambiguation). ... (1. ... A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ... A diagonal can refer to a line joining two nonadjacent vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, or in contexts any upward or downward sloping line. ... Solidus (Latin) is the name of a Roman coin during the Roman Empire. ... Over may refer to: Look up Over on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Over (cricket) Over (professional wrestling) or a place in England: Over, Cambridgeshire Over, Cheshire Over, South Gloucestershire This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ... Slats are small aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of an airplane wing which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. ...

External links

• Grammatically Correct – Using Slashes Correctly
• Forward Slash Definition by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)