Interesting. The ASCII character set has been around so long that I forget that someone (or some group) had to decide what was going to be included.

>Hi,
>Horses mouth:
>http://www.trailing-edge.com/~bobbemer/BACSLASH.HTM
>
>>>Now I'm wondering where the backslash came from.
>>
>>Looks like it was 'invented' in 1960...
>>
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backslash
>>
>>>If they used it for C because it wasn't used for anything else it implies >it wasn't on the keyboard. And if it wasn't on the keyboard there wouldn't >be much point in using it as an escape character in C......
>>>
>>>>Here are the 'official explanations...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2005/06/24/432386.aspx
>>>>http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/07/060115.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>> God knows why they did that anyway - as we know, "/" is used for all web addresses so why wasn't it good enough for PC paths? Why did it need to be introduced in the first place?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>So that it would be different from UNIX.......
>>>>>
>>>>>That's a joke, right? Something invented just so it will be different.
>>>>>
>>>>>For every invention one should ask "What is the problem for which this has been invented as a solution?"