Comment by skybrian 5 days ago
Except not hidden. Why do people want to hide important files and directories? Particularly documentation? Tradition, I guess, but it's an antipattern that makes everything more opaque.
Maybe robot_docs?
Another reason to use a src/ directory for the actual source code.
These files also generally work in a nested fashion, like .gitignore and the like. So you want something that can be injected into the namespace of any directory in your project with relatively low likelihood of conflicts.
I feel bad that you're getting downvotes. The reason is that pretty much every modern web stack decouples the URL routing from the source code directory structure these days. It was a nice hack back in the day, but there are so many problems with it no one really does it any more.
Some frameworks (Laravel, NextJS, etc) map from the directory structure to routes, but that's just a mapping rather than actually exposing the directories on the server. You can have /src/agents accessible as /agents. Or you could have /alice/bob/agents accessible through /agents. It's all just build tooling and web server config at the end of the day.
That's my point. Having your code in `/src` doesn't mean some of that code doesn't still have routing at `example.com/agents`. It doesn't have to be a real directory.
A `.agents` directory (or routing pretending to be one) is nice because you are fairly unlikely to ever have user-facing `example.com/.agents` as a URL.
Or accept the fact that we're in 2025 and not follow Unix conventions from when paper and printer ink were expensive and they were printing out listings, and just name the thing "source".
I've gotten used to it, obviously - as someone with a career in IT for 20 years - but /etc & co. annoy me to no end. I know it will never change, I know why it won't change, I know GoboLinux will be just an interesting experiment, but it's still annoying.
Have you considered that there are other metrics people are optimizing for nowadays? Perhaps typeability, screen real estate, familiarity/convention, etc.? Do you really want /User Files/Bob's Files/Coding Projects/Python Projects/Bob's Cool Python Library/Source Code/Model Files/SomeObject.py?
$HOME/accept/the/fact/that/were/in/2025/and/not/follow/unix/conventions/from/when/paper/and/printer/ink/were/expensive/and/they/were/printing/out/listings/and/just/name/the/thing/source/main.cwe're -> we are
I've -> I have
& -> and
co. -> company
won't -> will not
it's -> it is
Call it whatever you like. I don't care and that clearly wasn't the point of my comment.
One thing I've learnt, though, is unless you have a very good reason to try to change language you should just talk the same language as everyone else. I don't like the American short billion. It makes no sense and it's less useful. But that's what I use because I speak English and that's what we use now. If I see a src/ directory I know exactly what it is. If I see source/ it will give me pause. Get over it IMO.
/Library/System/Applications/Core/Security/Daemons.app/Framework/Version 4.6.2/Let's not go full Apple please.
Where are they hidden that you are having trouble with? I've had an alias for `ls` that always includes dotfiles and `shopt -s dotglob` in my bash profile for decades. Mac Finder is a little more obnoxious with having to do `Meta+Shift+.` to reveal dotfiles.
Other than that, modern tooling like Git and IDEs do not "hide" dotfiles.
These days, a `.` in front of a file or folder in a repo is more to indicate it is metadata/config. Although I am in favor of putting all that stuff under `.config/`.
> Maybe robot_docs?
No thanks.
It's so it doesn't clash with any project that actually has a functional `agents/` directory