In the old days of V7 Unix, directories weren't quite files butthey were close enough that you could open and read() themdirectly, and they had a simple enough structure that there was nolibrary routine to parse their contents; programs like the V7 ls just did itthemselves. A good part of the reason for this was that filenames wereshort (14 characters max), so directory entries could be fixed-sizedobjects.

In 4BSD, Berkeley expanded the maximum length of

One of the useful things about interpreted languages like Python forprogramming, especially system administration, is that there is nodistinction between the source code and the executable program. Thismeans that you never have to play the exciting game of 'where's thesource, and for that matter the build instructions, and does it evenbuild with a modern compiler?'

(I once had the interesting assignment of converting a program writtenfor the V6 Unix version of C into something that would compile on a moreconventional C