There are differences in MS OS, consider:

uh no. We're using the same OS. It seems you didn't execute the same command as I did.

You need to use quotes since a bare "/" denotes an switch. And while some shell commands and utilities accept "/", chdir aka cd isn't one of them.

Going back to what I said, the OS (WinXP) itself accepts "/" throughout its API. This is how Perl communicates with the OS, so it's free to use "/".

There can be weird things with "\". I am just saying for the most part, use "/" instead of "\\". I think we agree on that!

I made a comment on the text I quoted specifically. The advice you give is sound, although I use "\" personally. "/" just looks to weird.