coopster - 5:40 pm on Feb 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

Mistake may be a strong word, but I'm not sure how else to put it ... misguided approach? There are always other factors outside of just the code or a minimal redirect statement. Performance, site structure and site maintenance are some that come to mind.

Will either way work? Of course. Is one better than the other? My experiences allow me to confidently state that yes, I believe that http servers, well, Apache at least, are designed for content selection based on the specification and that variant maps will outperform redirection every time when setup and used as intended. My statement is not meant as arrogant or "any other way is wrong". I am merely offering to this community my experience in this area, offering what I have learned from application and practice.

I can assure you the approach works great for both static content as well as dynamic content. As a matter of fact, dynamic is what it is all about. It is a very rare approach that a site is developed without using some form of server-side technology to offer dynamic content to the documents. Server-side technology just makes the job so much easier.