In what OS did the use of the '.' first mean 'the current directory' ?
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2does this sort of question really belong here? What about google? – Mitch Wheat Jun 15 '09 at 12:29
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7No offence, but I can't understand how this question has been voted up 5 times? – Mitch Wheat Jun 15 '09 at 12:31
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Why should it be Community Wiki? This kind of thing has an answer, I hope. – GWLlosa Jun 15 '09 at 12:35
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@Mitch: People attempting to get a Civic duty badge? probably :) – Shadi Almosri Jun 15 '09 at 12:35
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1exactly, this is not a opinion answer, why should it be a wiki? As for googling, you try searching for '.' on google, let me know how that goes. – z - Jun 15 '09 at 12:36
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2Hey, I can think of loads more like this one: "What's the origin of using a backslash as a directory separator?" etc. ... ! :) – Mitch Wheat Jun 15 '09 at 12:36
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possibly the up votes are purely to frustrate those who are vocal about their belief that the question should not be up voted. – Assembler Jun 15 '09 at 12:38
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at least 10 up voters would probably be interested in finding out that answer, mitch :) – z - Jun 15 '09 at 12:40
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However, in what way does this relate to programming? Voting to move to SU. – David Thornley Nov 02 '09 at 04:04
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@Mitch Actually, talking of origins, Unix was using a forward slash and then http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1589930/so-what-is-the-right-direction-of-the-paths-slash-or/1590078#1590078 – Pascal Thivent Nov 02 '09 at 04:11
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In what OS did the use of the '.' first mean 'the current directory' ?
I think it was Unix (still trying to find the reference) Actually, it might be Multics (a project started in 1964), the first operating system to provide a hierarchical file system:
I think that Multics was the first to provide a hierarchical file system. The influence of that innovation can be found in virtually every modern operating system, including Unix, Mac OS, DOS and Windows. [JHS]
But I'm still trying to find the reference for the one period and two periods pointers.
Pascal Thivent
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1It is mentioned in the Unix Programmer's Manual version 1 in the manual page for ls. – starblue Nov 03 '09 at 07:34
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@starblue Thank you very much! I'm going to check this right now. – Pascal Thivent Nov 03 '09 at 09:44
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@starblue Hmmm... Actually, I couldn't find it in the man of ls (Commands, part 2) at http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/1stEdman.html. Are you sure of this? Am I looking at the wrong document? – Pascal Thivent Nov 03 '09 at 09:55
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i would guess dot = point = current target. but that's just my guess.
dusoft
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2How does this answer the question (which is *In what OS did the use of the '.' first mean 'the current directory' ?*)? – Pascal Thivent Nov 04 '09 at 02:03
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I believe its because '..' meant one directory up, so '.' was used for the current directory, which explicitly states to only look in the current directory, rather than the path.
samoz
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