[gmyachtsman]

OK -- I've figured out why I was getting the raw code showing up on my .shtml pages. It was the .htaccess file. The clue was that the Vbulletin forum wasn't being parsed either:

After I had named my index file index.php, I noticed that the .htaccss file in my public_html folder was preventing my VBulletin board from being evaluated. Instead all you saw on the forums page was a jumble of writing in the browser.

Deleting the .htaccess file solved that. Remembering that I had seen the same thing at the bottom of my .shtml page, I converted back to using that page (without the .htaccess fiel this time.)

The result was that the file was properly included in my browser with the <!--#include virtual="last10/last10.php"--> line as previously used above.

Now why were people saying to use the .htaccess file again?

One other change I had to make was because I was getting an error from the parsing of the included php file where it needed to access the config file.

I had to change the path to "../discussion/admin" since I had to go up one step from my last10 folder before going down.

Now it is all working fine. And it also works if I switch the index file to a .php ending. What a problem this .htaccess stuff caused me and somehow it seems that I did it all to myself!!!

Thanks for the cool hack!!