How to work with dots? When are they read as `./3` when as parts of an atom?

Hi, all,

I skimmed through the recent mailing list subjects and didn't see this
addressed elsewhere. But I am sorry if I overlooked an existing discussion!

I just fired up the newest development version, and am running *SWI-Prolog
(Multi-threaded, 64 bits, Version 7.1.8)* on OS X 9.1.

According to the note on the page for the latest development release,

> Unquoted atoms may contain internal dots. E.g., `a.b` is an atom.

But the dot seems to treated exclusively as the operator for functions on
dicts:

    ?- atom(a.b).
    ERROR: Type error: `dict' expected, found `a' (an atom)

Same thing if I try and use it as a functor:

    ?- compound(a.b(X)).
    ERROR: Type error: `dict' expected, found `a' (an atom)

Can anyone help clarify for my sake?

Many thanks!

Shon

*P.S. I'm seeing some buggy interface elements on the new (much prettier!)
SWI site. Is this a known issue, or would it be helpful for me detail what
I'm seeing?*
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