>>12
Dot operator is for and only for finding members of the current variable. It matches the design of everything else in C: keeping the language clean.
Do we really suffer for it? I see an expression like p->member and I can immediately tell that p is a pointer, without fishing out the declaration.
>>10
Not knowing one of the core operators of the C language, I don't think you're entitled to tell anybody to lurk more, no matter how much of a jerk they are to you.