Front Controller Setup Question [Apache Mod Rewrite + PHP combo)

[big_nerd]

Okay,

This is just to settle some curiosity, really.

A friend of mine was curious on how Mod-rewrite works, so I had illustrated an example from the Zend Framework:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.php [NC,L]

Which, from what I have read, will direct anything that isnt a directory, or real file to index.php, and furthermore if I am not mistaken, it is sent through REQUEST_URI (using $_SERVER).

Below is a VERY BASIC example NOT indended for production use.. I just wanted to clarify since it is buggy code that would probably cause a site not to work correctly.

<?php

//index.php
$params = explode('/',strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']));

array_shift($params);

printf("<!-- %s -->",print_r($params,true));

$pagename = $params[0];

if (sizeof($params) == 0 || empty($params) || ($params[0] == '' && sizeof($params) == 1)) {
   $pagename = "Homepage";
}

echo "You are requesting the main page of: <strong>'$pagename'</strong>.  <br>\n";

$paramCount = sizeof($params);



if ($paramCount >= 2) {
  if (($paramCount % 2) == 0) {  // if its greater than two, but even numbers
    $subpage = $params[1];
    echo "The Subpage of: <strong>'$subpage'</strong>. <br>\n";  

    for ($i = 2; $i <= ($paramCount-1); $i++) {
      $j = $i+1;      

      echo ($i % 2) ? "" : "You are trying to send the GET variable <strong>'{$params[$i]}'</strong> with a value of <strong>'{$params[$j]}'</strong>. <br>\n" ;
    }
  } else {
    // uneven number of variables
    for ($i = 1; $i <= ($paramCount-1); $i++) {    

      $j = $i+1;      

      echo ($i % 2) ? "You are trying to send the GET variable <strong>'{$params[$i]}'</strong> with a value of <strong>'{$params[$j]}'</strong>. <br>\n" : "";
    }

  } 
}
?>

And it does work, and DOES indeed illustrate a very basic unworthy front controller.

My only issue is - at least on the webhost I use (uses php cgi) when I attempt to access a PHP file (or phps for that matter, and yes, its defined in apache config, its a dev site only) it passes it to the index.php, however when I attempt to view a folder, image, css, js file it seems to work (shows that file)

example:

http://site/hello/world  

Output:
You are requesting the main page of: 'hello'.
The Subpage of: 'world'. 

http://site/hello/world/foo
You are requesting the main page of: 'hello'.
You are trying to send the GET variable 'world' with a value of 'foo'. 

etc etc...

http://site/index.phps   (which exists)

Output:
You are requesting the main page of: 'index.phps'. 

http://site/button.gif (exists)

[image file shown]

This is for the purpose of learning, and perhaps one day, use in some form of production, so any help would be greatly appreciated.