As I understand, in Linux directories are mostly normal files w/ some special handling (e.g. 'rm' a file is ok; 'rm' a dir will complain w/o -r).

When I execute the following bash commands:

```
mkdir foo; touch foo/f1.txt; touch foo/f2.txt; vim foo

```

Vim shows the contents of the foo directory-file as:

```
" ============================================================================
" Netrw Directory Listing                                        (netrw v136)
"   /home/capdigi/foo
"   Sorted by      name
"   Sort sequence: [\/]$,\<core\%(\.\d\+\)\=\>,\.h$,\.c$,\.cpp$,*,\.o$,\.obj$,\.info$,\.swp$,\.bak$,\~$
"   Quick Help: <F1>:help  -:go up dir  D:delete  R:rename  s:sort-by  x:exec
" ============================================================================
../
f1.txt
f2.txt

```

My questions are:

**1) Why is netrw used in the context of this example?**
According to <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1075>, netrw "supports reading and writing files across networks". Is this just the component that vim uses for uniform local/network directory access?

**2) Why is netrw needed at all?**
Since directories are "mostly" normal files, can't they just be opened as a normal file without any intermediary layer? Aka why all the fanciness?