> > I realize my question may be an eye-roller for some people, but
> >
> > "as I learnt to read years ago,"
> >
> > is the type of answer that makes non-Linux users think that we're a
> > bunch of elitist snob.
>
> No, it doesn't.
> It's appropriate sarcasm.
> A quick scroll and a basic knowledge of the alphabet is all that's
> required to locate any file/directory in even a complex listing.
That feature appears useful in case of a directory with lots of files
where the first part of the filename is unknown (i.e. one can't guess
even the general area in the listing where the file might be).
That's exactly my point. Thank you Andrei. You've been helpful since I started using Debian.