File dialog boxes and dot files

[Ron Murray <rjmx bigfoot com>]

   From the fact that it appears to have been around for so long
(well, up till gnome core 1.0.7, at least), I assume there's a valid
design reason why Gnome's file dialog boxes (e.g. those in gnotepad+,
gedit, many more) don't show hidden files and directories (i.e. those
with a leading dot). But for the life of me, I cannot see why this
should be so. I'm told (and have verified) that I can get into these
files/directories by typing a dot and a tab, but this is neither
intuitive nor well-documented. Can anyone enlighten me as to why I
wouldn't want Gnome apps to access these files/directories? Or, better
yet, tell me how to enable access to them permanently?

Thanks,

 .....Ron