Scenario:
The following script:

<?php
  session_start();
  $strTest = 'hello';
?>
<a href="<? echo $strTest ?>">click here</a>

will cause the script to silently die right after the
<a href=

This only occurs with the NSAPI version of php running on Windows NT 4.0 (as far as I know), and in one of two instances:
1. client has disabled per-session cookies.
2. this is the first page on the site that the client visits

The CGI version has no problems in these two cases (on the same machine).

Replacing echo with 'print' or even the short-hand '=' do not seem to remedy the problem.

To correct the problem, I can either remove the 'session_start()' call (sacrifices session functionality), or I can replace the tag with:

<? print "<a href=\"$strTest\">" ?>click here</a>

where the print statement encapsulates the entire opening tag. I can also omit any quotes (single or double) around the attribute:

<a href=<? echo $strTest ?>>click here</a>

This is not limited to the anchor tag, as I have reproduced it with 'form', etc..