question about VPATH and current directory

[Robert P. J. Day]

  (as a side note, i'm trying not to be overwhelmingly annoying with 
what are undoubtedly simple questions.)

  i'm just about to redesign my software structure using VPATH, and i was
curious about the fact that VPATH is designed as a search list for files
that are not in the current directory *already*.

  this flies in the face of historical unix convention that the regular 
search path variable PATH has to *explicitly* list the current directory 
for it to be searched.

  while i can see the rationale for make searching the current directory 
by default first, and only consulting VPATH afterwards, was there ever any
thought given to having VPATH act like PATH instead?  are there any 
situations where it would have been advantageous for VPATH to do that?
just curious.

rday