Subject: bug#22561: 25.0.90; dired alphabetic sort of listing handles leading '.' strangely on MS Windows

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 07:32:08 -0800 (PST)

> > I believe the listing in Emacs 24.5 is preferable. It 25.0.90, it is as if
> > the initial period in any file/directory entry is
> > being ignored when sorting alphabetically. Also, upper and lower case are
> > also being ignored.
> 
> It's a new feature, meant to emulate more closely what Emacs and 'ls'
> do on GNU/Linux.  From NEWS:
> 
>   *** The ls-lisp package uses `string-collate-lessp' to sort file names.
>   If you want the old, locale-independent sorting, customize the new
>   option `ls-lisp-use-string-collate' to a nil value.
> 
> OK to close this bug?

Why was the default behavior changed?  Why not let Windows _users_
choose to sort in this new way?  If, after several years of that,
users are clamouring for the default behavior to change, emacs-devel
can discuss that possibility and perhaps change to using
`string-collate-lessp' by default.

It should be:

  If you want the new, locale-dependent sorting, customize the new
  option `ls-lisp-use-string-collate' to a non-nil value.