[Python-Dev] __file__ and bytecode-only

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:59:50 pm Jon Ribbens wrote:

> Sorry if I missed it, but why on earth is the bytecode directory
> __pycache__ and not .pycache? (Or indeed anything else that starts
> with a '.') Surely this is a classic ideal use case for a "hidden"
> directory?

I disagree with your assumption that there is *any* use-case for a 
hidden directory, let alone an ideal one.

I despise hidden directories and dot files. I know it is the "Unix way", 
and I suppose it made sense back in 1975 when users had two or three 
dot files in their home directory, but I count 215 dot files in my home 
directory compared to only 77 visible files, and I have no idea how 
most of them got there or what they do. Programs that litter the file 
system with dot files are bad enough when they do it in $HOME, but 
sprinkling dot files everywhere they can is inexcusable.

This is not the place for me to rant over the evil that is dot files, so 
I'll just say this: Python works on platforms other than Unix/Linux, 
and some of those platforms don't treat dot files as anything more than 
a file with a leading dot in the file name.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano