[OT] A question for you web geeks out there ...

Paul King sciguy-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org
Wed Apr 18 00:21:43 UTC 2007


Hello:

I have been given the job of maintaining a web site on Yahoo (not my decision, 
but Yahoo doesn't actually seem as yucky as I first thought), which uses a 
number of bells and whistles for its basic service. I had been playing around 
with its blog function, and later decided to disable it after making a few 
entries to see how it worked (the blog is not necessary for the website). 

I noticed when I disabled the blog, the files I created were still visible. In 
the blog directory were files called "index.html" and "index.xml", plus some 
accessory files (javascript, small graphics files, etc). I decided to delete 
index.html. I created a zero-length index.html file in its place (intending to 
examine the other files to see what their purpose was). When I tested it, I saw 
the file again as if I hadn't deleted it (I cleared the cache on my browser). I 
clicked on "index.xml", and it came out on my browser as a fairly nicely-
formatted webpage. I clicked on my zero-length index.html file, and the same 
content came up, except with minimal formatting (times roman, black on white).

My question is: how is it that I can click on a zero-length HTML file -- an 
empty file -- and it still is served to me as a web page with any content at 
all?

Paul King

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