[Tutor] Question regarding list editing (in place)

[David J. Weller-Fahy]

Let me know if this should be on the general python list.

I'm playing with some python to iterate over a directory structure.  Part 
of the directory structure should be ignored, and will have a period (.) 
as the first character of the directory name.

My solution was to use the following code.
#v+
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(data_dir()):
     for n in xrange(len(dirs) - 1, -1, -1):
         if dirs[n].startswith(u'.'):
             del dirs[n]
#v-

This works.  But I'm wondering whether there is a simpler solution (rather 
than walking the index backwards through the list) to removing items from 
a list without replacing the list?  Specifically, I'm looking for 
something that would be similar to the concept, "Remove every list item 
that starts with X."

Regards,
-- 
David J. Weller-Fahy (please don't CC me)