On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 12:01 -0400, William Case wrote: > Hi Mikkel, > > Thanks for your quick response. > > On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 10:39 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > > William Case wrote: > > > Hi All; > > [snip] > > > This is the way Linux hides files and directories. You will notice > > that they do not show up in a normal ls listing, or in the file > > selection window of most programs. If you have your file manager set > > up not to show hidden files/directories, they will not show up there > > ether. > > I understand the above comments. The reason I included the bit about > being a newru was that I was looking for a deeper explanation than the > rudimentary. > > For example, why would Linux/Unix choose to hide files when there is the > simple option of placing them in a standard sub-directory? That > sub-directory could be 'dotted' if a strong need to hide things was > felt. > > I am not actually proposing this but: for neatness's sake couldn't I > create a sub-directory in /home, called 'userconfig' or '.userconfig', > put all my dot files in there? Of course, I would then have to change > *all* my applications to look in 'userconfig' to find the config, *rc, > etc. data. > > I asked because, the use of dot files has an ancient historical feel to > it, but I wanted to check if there might be some overriding > practical/technical reason as well, and I asked because it was a quiet > Sunday Morning and I wasn't ready to get down to real work yet. > > -- > Regards Bill > Your solution is much more problematic than it seems. The suppliers of gnome and mozilla, and evolution, etc would all have to agree. Now they are agreeing to a standard that has existed for decades. To all get them to agree to a new standard is not a trivial chore. -- ======================================================================= Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs. -- Kernighan ======================================================================= Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
