>The top slash says "go to the top level of this doohickey and look down
>from there" where "doohickey" is a domain, virtual or otherwise. These type
>of links are usually used on sites where there are lots of subdirectories
>and the person who set up the template wanted to use one basic template in
>all the subdirectories -- instead of customizing the page that's two levels
>down with ../../images, they just used the /images link.
>
>I've never been able to make links that start with / work locally on my PC
>(Win98), but have used it on both UNIX and NT servers. I usually do a
>"search-n-replace" of /images with ../images when I'm working locally and
>need to see the images (like when I'm working with rollovers) -- you just
>have to remember to switch it back to /images etc. before FTPing the file
>back up.
Thanks to all who replied to my post. But many of you are missing the point
of what I was trying (apparently poorly :) to say. Here's another attempt.
I have a new client. I ftp their site files to my local system. I go to
open a page, any page, and nearly all the images are broken and the links
don't work. I know I have all the files on my system in the same directory
structure as is on the server. With me so far?
It turns out that the reason they don't work on my local system (which is
_not_ running a web server!) is that the paths are coded as absolute paths.
So of course they don't work on my local drive.
Now, if the original site designer had coded relative paths, they would
work on the server and work on my local drive. But they didn't. This seems
foolish to me. The orginal designer could of course sit in their web design
shop on a system running a server and everything would be fine. I'm not in
that situation.
For me to sit at my local system, edit a page (coded with absolute paths),
upload it to the server and test it to make sure my editing looks the way I
want in the browser, is time-consuming and inefficient. I want to edit and
preview it locally. But with the pages coded with absolute paths I can't.
>Hmmm...is anyone on the list running a web server on their local system
>(like WebStar for Mac) who knows from experience that /images links work
>when your local machine is also a server? I'd be interested in knowing
>that....
And Tamara, that is my next question :>) I know nothing about running a
web server. What about either of the two free Mac web servers out there:
The common lisp hypermedia server
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/cl-http/home-page.html
httpd4MaC
http://sodium.ch.man.ac.uk/pages/httpd4Mac/home.html
are these hard to set up? Are they solid and reliable? I don't like to
install software on my Mac that I know nothing about. If I run them on my
local system, will the web files coded with absolute paths work properly? I
don't want to re-code over 100 html pages!
Barry
--
Barry Lee Brisco <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Web Design & Development - Online Marketing <http://www.ToTheWeb.com>
Connecting Businesswomen in Asia <http://www.women-connect-asia.com>
The Pan-Asian Online Underwater Magazine <http://www.asiandiver.com>
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