>>>The position of the top relative to the bottom determines whether it is a forward slash or a back slash.
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>>Um... the position of the top is always ABOVE the bottom, by definition.
>>
>>If we assume that "forward" means "rising to the right", and "backward" means "rising to the left", then my keyboard driver should drive it left-to-right, i.e. the right side of my keyboard is the front side...? Um... then its spacebar side would be the right side and... Oh. I'm getting lost here.
>
>If you read forward, you are reading left to right. In other words, the right side of the page is 'forward' relative to the left side, as is the top of the slash relative to the bottom. If you scan backward over the text, then the left side is 'back' relative the the right side, as is the top of the backslash relative to the bottom.
>
>Ok, I'm tired now.
>
>Which is not to say I've been run over by a truck. And even though I've been tired before, this is not to say that I am now 'retired', by which I mean I haven't been run over twice. Or something like that.

Glad to see that I'm not alone in my futile quest for logic in language :).