Invoking php

[shoshanaz]

I have a php interface to mySQL db (hosted at godaddy.com). In the code I have
<?

require_once('../Connections/srch.php');
?>

which works fine. However if I change <? to <?php

<?php
require_once('../Connections/srch.php');
?>

...it fails (without an error as far as I can tell) UNLESS I add either a blank statement (😉 or a comment line (//) into the code before or after the require statement -- as this:

<?php
;
require_once('../Connections/srch.php');
?>

then it works fine.
Can anyone explain why this is happening? Since Dreamweaver defaults to the <?php syntax, it was a real bear trying to figure that one out.

Thanks. Sorry if this is a "well duh.. " kind of question.

[nightowl]

never heard of such an odd behaviour. have you checked your PHP.INI ? there is something in there about short tags like <? ...