A simple way to remember forward/backslash (which I probably read on HN) is the phrase "Backslash is by the backspace"
Edit: This is for the standard US keyboard. A more general way of thinking about it, though a bit more to remember: associate "positive" with "forward", and see that '/' has a positive slope. Or just go listen to a BBC podcast, and let the sound of the broadcaster saying "bbc dot co dot uk forward-slash newspod" resonate in your head.
"Forward slash" is a goofy name anyway. There are:
- "slash": the character you use in English and when typing fractions; and
- "backslash": the Microsoft-slash: backwards, like everything else they do.
Another way to remember is that (at least on US keyboards) the slash is always in the same place (on the same key as the question mark). The backslash, being the oddity that it is, is in different places, depending on the keyboard vendor.
Reminds me of many discussions I would have explaining how to invoke a particular DOS command to people whose MO was "dir" and then violently mashing <break> to allow themselves to page through a large directory.
"File slash" and "option slash" were far less confusing than decoding the secretary's concept of "forward" and "back."
It doesn't really make sense. Given we use a left-to-right and up-to-down, \ can be seen slashing forward in writing direction, starting from the top, and / backward.
Upslash / and downslash \ would make more sense, but this is what we have. My mnemonic is that forward and back are the opposite of what makes sense.
Edit: This is for the standard US keyboard. A more general way of thinking about it, though a bit more to remember: associate "positive" with "forward", and see that '/' has a positive slope. Or just go listen to a BBC podcast, and let the sound of the broadcaster saying "bbc dot co dot uk forward-slash newspod" resonate in your head.