title: Why does listFiles() not guarantee order?
body: <p><a href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/io/File.html#listFiles%28%29" rel="nofollow">This</a> seems like a strange thing to say.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>There is no guarantee that the name strings in the resulting array
    will appear in any specific order; they are not, in particular,
    guaranteed to appear in alphabetical order.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Why can't the order be guaranteed? What one gets when one <code>ls</code> could, for example be a reasonable default.</p>
  
  <p>Is this something that was decided for (performance?) reason, or perhaps where is some deeper truth out there?</p>