How do I make invisible files (like bash profile) visible in the finder?

question is in the title. There's some files that most Apple users don't need access to, but if you program you do need access to. in particular the bash profile. anyone know how to make these visible in the finder?

i'm using a macbook pro 10.6.8

All you need to do is set the AppleShowAllFiles preference to "true." From terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true

If you'd like to reverse the change, enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles false

For the changes to take effect, either restart the Finder or logout and back in.