[Usability]file selection dialogs - curious about presence of "." directory

["Krzysztof Foltman" <kfoltman onet pl>]

I wonder about one thing that always surprised me in various X11
interfaces:

Why do most file selection dialogs in X11 apps display the "." directory
(and usually place it as first) in directory section of file selection
dialogs ? I think usefulness of being able to go to directory you're
currently in is rather limited (to say the least - double clicking on it
doesn't seem to do anything). In my opinion it only occupies screen
space and confuses users. The DOS/Windows counterparts (Norton Commander
and all the clones) just remove that directory from the list.

Is there any practical reason to include that directory in those list ?
I'm not trying to start a flamewar, just curious about why it wasn't
removed (maybe some UNIX-specific reason).

Chris