I try to be solidly on the side of "anti-elitism". I try not to use tricky Perl syntax when writing code for new folks. I try to explain how what I write works. In this case, I agree that I sounded too "high almighty". There are limitations in this textual format and sometimes what is heard is not what I intended.

However I have seen this misconception about a file "lives in a folder" versus "a file is just a set of bits and a pointer to those bits lives in the directory" so often that it provoked a reflex response. This misconception happens a lot even at the university level. This is not a minor point. It is the same idea like Perl reference counting.

Hard disk I/O isn't covered very well in school. I guess I got carried away.

I try not to use tricky Perl syntax when writing code for new folks. I try to explain how what I write works

Post a working solution to the questioners problem, and even if they do not understand how it works, they make forward progress. And it encourages some of them to read or question how it works, and learn in the process.

It is completely irrelevant to the users of rename what actually happens under the covers. You could go through an entirely succcessful career without ever knowing those details.

Explaining them, especially at a level that despite your verbosity, was entirely superficial, as it does not describe what actually happens in any given file system, does not help answer the question asked.

I've gotten way too much grief for a simple post. Let's forget it.