It looks to me as though you have EL parsing disabled in your application - this is why the container isn't evaluating the ${ ... } expression and resolving it to the variable value (instead it's treating it as a literal
string).
There are a couple of ways to ensure EL gets evaluated:
(1) Make sure your web.xml deployment descriptor is declared as being version 2.4 or higher
(2) Use <el-ignored>false</el-ignored> in the deployment descriptor, under a <jsp-property-group> (inside a <jsp-config>) which references the page in question.
(3) Use the page directive in the JSP: <%@ page isELIgnored="false" %>
The order of precedence is (3) overrides (2) overrides (1).
Since you're just starting JSP development, perhaps the easiest thing to do for (to avoid complications of conflicting configuration data) would be to use (3) in each experimental page. However, once it comes to writing applications intended to be deployed for real, you would probably want to use (1), or perhaps (2) to be explicit.
Regards,
Charles.
[ March 13, 2006: Message edited by: Charles Lyons ]
[ March 13, 2006: Message edited by: Charles Lyons ]