Homework 2 FAQ

What kind of HTML link tags must we account for?
Your program must accept any HTML link tags that are valid HTML. In particular, this means that neither too much nor too little whitespace should affect your program. Nor should the presence or absence of quotes around the link. Nor should the case of the tags
What if the tag references stuff that's not text (eg: images, more HTML tags, etc)?
Don't worry about them - print out the references as though they were plain text.
I don't know much HTML. What do links look like?
This is a sample HTML link:
```
<a href="http://www.rpi.edu">RPI homepage</a>
```
In this example, 'http://www.rpi.edu' is the link - the address you go to if you click the underlined words. 'RPI homepage' is the reference, the actual clickable words.
Some things to note:
- whitespace is allowed almost anywhere within the tag. The only exceptions are within the text of the link, and between the / and the a of the closing tag.
- the quotes surrounding the link are not necessary, but are often there.
- There can be anything at all between the end of the opening <a> tag and the end of the closing </a> tag. This includes image references and more HTML tags. Which means special characters like ", < and > could be in there as well. Your program must account for this.
- The opening <a> tag may contain more properties than just href. (for example, you may find something like
  <a href="http://www.rpi.edu" target="_top">RPI</a>)
- Not every link begins with 'http://'. That's only for external links. Links to something on the same server might just be the filename itself.
Does "RCS Machine" mean a Unix machine on the RCS network, or a Windows box that can connect to RCS?
For this assignment, and all future references in this class, "RCS Machine" refers to an RCS Unix Computer. This can be either one of the physical terminals in the CII, JEC, VCC, or Library, or one of the remote terminals you can SSH into - such as rcs.rpi.edu.
Are "nested" links allowed in HTML? ie, does our program need to account for things like
```
<a href="..."> ... <a href="..."> ... </a> ... </a>
```
No. This is not legal HTML, and your program does not need to account for it.
Can we assume that the entire link will be on one line?
No. The text between <a... and </a> may include anything, including newlines. See the Sample HTML file for an example
Do we need to search for HTML files in the subdirectories of the public_html directory?
No. Only search the public_html subdirectory of the directory entered on the command line. Do not search farther than that.