I think I should point out before Monks chime in with 347 different ways to count the lines in a file, that my question is, more specifically, "why is this featured in the FAQ as the suggested way?" is it better, and in what way, file I/O, speed, what?

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“Every bit of code is either naturally related to the problem at hand, or else it's an accidental side effect of the fact that you happened to solve the problem using a digital computer.” M-J D