Why is this good? Suppose you want to process a form on the server. You can write code inside special brackets that the server will execute. Suppose the form has a field name called ACCTNR. Here's some code:
<% if response("ACCTNR")="" then %>
<B>You must enter an account number!</B>
<% else %>
Your account number is <%= response("ACCTNR") %>
<% end if %>
The response collection allows you to access form data (and the query string, cookies, and server variables, too). The special brackets <% and %> surround the code. If the first character after the bracket is an equal sign, the string value of the code appears in the output HTML.