passing parameters to a script doesn't work

Hi, I'm trying to pass parameters to a PHP script and it's not working. Whilst this is the first time I've tried to use this, I'm basically copying an example straight out of a text book and can't understand why this doesn't work. In one script I have a (static) link: http://localhost/text/basic.php?html=basic ATM basic.php looks like this: <?php echo("<html>\n<body>\n<p>html: $html</p>\n</body>\n</html>\n"); ?> Pretty simple? Well it doesn't work. All I get in my browser is: html: The only thing I can think of is that I have "register_globals" switched off in php.ini, but I didn't think that this applied when it came to passing parameters in URLs. Can anyone help? thankyou; sol -- ============================== Sol Hanna solATautonomonDOTnet