this should be:
<A HREF="http://www.my.place/cgi-bin/imagemap/alias">
<IMG SRC="/path/to/gif/map.gif" ISMAP></A>.
(`alias' being the left-hand part of the specific
line in your `imagemap.conf' file that points to
`map_file.map'.)
the server (at least, the ncsa httpd server) doesn't
know about imagemaps internally, so it doesn't call
the imagemap program automatically. by setting the
ISMAP attribute in your <IMG> tag, you're telling
the *client* to send coordinates along with the URL
request in the <A> tag. the server receives this as
GET /cgi-bin/imagemap/alias?x,y
and does as it's told -- runs the `imagemap' program
in the `cgi-bin' directory. the server gives the
imagemap program the $PATH_INFO of `alias' and the
$QUERY_STRING of `x,y'. imagemap looks up `alias'
in its config file, opens the appropriate map file
and does the coordinate-to-URL conversion.
you are in a maze of twisty little passages,
all alike. ;-)
-- John Labovitz Global Network Navigator <http://gnn.com/> O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, California, USA (+1 707 829 0515)