And don't ignore the virgule, which has a different slope. Bringhurst states that the solidus should be kerned,which implies no spaces before or after. However, his printed examples have quite a bit of white space around them, indicating very loose kerning.

It depends on the context whether a line break can occur following a slash. FOr instance, it's never OK to split the two parts of a fraction, but if it's two words that are separated by the slant character (there: I've used all the terms for it) then a line can end with the solidus. Personally, I wouldn't end a page with it, though. Too confusing.

- Herb

authoritative, informed opinion

Not always the same thing. :-)

For Spanish, consult Jorge de Buen.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10824880-manual-de-dise-o-editorial

And French:
http://www.adverbum.fr/regles-de-l-ecriture-typographique-du-francais-pe...

hhp

In English, I go by the context: by default, I space / around the slash, but sometimes it helps solve ambiguity not to have spaces. So whichever is clearer in context. In the same way that a hyphen becomes an en dash when one of the compound parts it's connecting is more than one word, I think a slash gets spaces around it when one (or more) of the things it's diving is more than one word. I usually prefer spaces, though, unless there's a good reason not to. I think Bringhurst has examples of both styles, which seems to imply it depends on context.

The following link gives spacing rules for French: Espacement avant et après les principaux signes de ponctuation et autres signes ou symboles (Office québécois de la langue française).