Hi Richard,

In this example, the "helloworld.html" file is not actually related
to the HelloWorldExample servlet. The "helloworld.html" file is a
static html page that displays the source code for a servlet class
named HelloWorld . To make matters more confusing, the actual
servlet included in the examples with tomcat 5.5 is named
"HelloWorldExample", not "HelloWorld", as shown in the example
source.

The thing to note here is that content in the root of the web-app
directory ('tomcat-home/webapps/servlets-examples/') can be accessed
directly by the client. i.e. in order to view
servlets-examples/helloworld.html you just point your browser to
http://localhost:8080/servlets-examples/helloworld.html
and tomcat will serve it to you. In this example, you receive
a plain old html page, not a jsp page or servlet output.

The example servlet, however, is accessed
using the url-pattern shown in the web.xml file. In this case, any
request to a url that matches the pattern
"/servlet/HelloWorldExample" will be sent to a servlet named
HelloWorldExample. The source for this servlet should be found in:
servlet-examples/WEB-INF/classes/HelloWorldExample.java
This is the code that is called when you actually run the example.

Hope that makes sense :\
Carl.