Linking to a Directory vs. index.html -- Differences?

Linking to */DIR/* vs. */DIR/index.html*

[DesignExplosion]

I have around 50 articles written, and I would like them to all receive maximum exposure & PageRank...

Would there be any difference if I listed all the articles in the main folder(same as index.htm) or its own folder? [ Any preference for files in root, over sub-dirs? ]

If I put all the articles in their own folder:
(www.example.com/articles/title0-100.html)
And have the index file be the listing of all articles, linking to each.

My question is, when I get outside links to my articles section... Which URL is best to provide?
A) example.com/articles/
B) example.com/articles/index.html
?

I thought maybe a link to the directory alone might distribute PR to the whole Directory, instead of the single page.

Thoughts?

[edited by: ciml at 10:23 am (utc) on Aug. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]

[robotsdobetter]

Many people use example.com/articles/ so they can change the page to another languages (Such as HTML to PHP or PHP to PERL) without having to have that page reindexed. There is no difference.