walking a directory with very many files

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <mailman.1734.1245302345.8015.python-list at python.org>, Ethan 
Furman wrote:

> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> In message <20090617214535.108667ca at coercion>, Mike Kazantsev wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:04:37 +1200
>>>Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>In message <20090617142431.2b25faf5 at malediction>, Mike Kazantsev wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:53:33 +1200
>>>>>Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>Why not use hex representation of md5/sha1-hashed id as a path,
>>>>>>>arranging them like /path/f/9/e/95ea4926a4 ?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>That way, you won't have to deal with many-files-in-path problem ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Why is that a problem?
>>>>>
>>>>>So you can os.listdir them?
>>>>
>>>>Why should you have a problem os.listdir'ing lots of files?
>>>
>>>I shouldn't, and I don't ;)
>> 
>> Then why did you suggest that there was a problem being able to
>> os.listdir them?
> 
> He didn't ...

He replied to my question "Why is that a problem?" with "So you can 
os.listdir them?". Why reply with an explanation of why it's a problem if 
you don't think it's a problem?