From: Bob Alexander <balexander@...>
Date: 2002-03-13T12:40:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Some potential RCRs

On the topic of whether ".." and "." should be in our directory
listings:

I don't think it really matters that those entries really exist in the
OS directory structure. What matters is what is useful in a programming
context. The ".." and "." entries are "bookkeeping" entries,
implementation artifacts. How often when scanning a directory do you
really want to see them? The directory contents are really the files and
directories in them. The parent and self directory are not really
"contents", even though technically they appear in the directory.

Note that the Unix "ls" command omits them by default.

Both Java and Python omit them from their directory listing methods.

It is a nuisance to almost always have to explicitly skip them when
scanning a directory:

    for entry in Dir.entries("myDir")
        next if ["..", "."].include?(entry)
        ...
    end

Can someone suggest an argument as to why having them in the listed
entries is useful?


Bob