Please confirm this file-name-directory behavior

[Mirko]

Hi,

I am running Emacs 22.1.1 on Windows XP, and I observe that file-name-
directory does not check whether the actual directory exists.  It just
parses the string argument for the directory & file parts.

I am not complaining about it not checking whether the directory
exists, I just want to confirm that this behavior is by design.

Thanks,

Mirko