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From: lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lawrence V. Cipriani)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: /bin/test and stat(2)
Message-ID: <678@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Sun, 25-Oct-87 10:54:11 EST
Article-I.D.: tut.678
Posted: Sun Oct 25 10:54:11 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Oct-87 07:32:27 EST
References: <9767@brl-adm.ARPA> <231@olgb1.oliv.co.uk>
Organization: Ohio State Computer & Info Science
Lines: 22
Summary: Another reason to have .

In article <231@olgb1.oliv.co.uk>, olapw@olgb1.oliv.co.uk (Tony Walton) writes:
> I don't pretend to know the original reason (if any) for having two ways
> to refer to the current directory, but it certainly makes life easier for
> the users. Consider the "ls" command - it's easier to type "ls" than "ls ."
> every time. On the other hand, "." is necssary as a "place holder" in some
> commands - like find, mv, etc.

You also couldn't say
			$ ./a.out

to force the shell to search the current directory (without a full path
name).  Users that want to trash . don't seem to understand the full extent
of this change.  You would also have to type in full path names or even use 

	$ `pwd`/a.out
or
	$ $PWD/a.out

Yuck!  Now if by trashing . "they" mean to keep the semantics but remove
it from the file system I'm not so adamant.  It's just too late to change
now.
	Larry Cipriani tut!lvc