Apple, AOL software using forward slashes in Mac OS X

Earlier this week we noted that forward slashes should never be used in the name of a drive or partition, or virtually in any other name field in Mac OS X. The reason behind this limitation stems from Mac OS X's UNIX underpinnings In prior versions of Mac OS the location of a file was noted using a path, with the colon (:) separating objects. Mac OS X uses the forward slash (/) in place of the colon.

MacFixIt reader Mike Weasner points out that several software manufacturers - including Apple itself - are using forward slashes:

"Look in the America Online folder (probably located in the Shared user folder); you will see folders like: Data 4/17/2003 12.11.18

"Even Apple does it. Create a photo album in iPhoto 2.0 with a name like: Vacation 07/04/03. iPhoto will happily make a folder with the slashes in your iPhoto albums folder."

As reinforcement for why you should never use forward slashes, Weasner also notes that trying to access folders or files with slashes via AppleScript will result in failure.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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