What is the canonical way to link to pages?

Question

I can easily link to my archives page by creating a link: <a href="http://server.com/wordpress/archives.php">Archives</a>. As I was editing my WP template, I noticed that there are a number of functions that WP uses to link to other pages. For example get_the_category_list returns a list of links. If I want to make my template more general, it would be nice not to hardcode the URL of my archives page and to use a WP function instead.

In general, how should template designers create links to WP generated pages?

Answer 1

This link Wordpress Codex: Linking... provides detailed information on how to link different types of content. One nice feature that solves the above problem is to use a link of the form /wordpress/archives.php. This will transfer nicely (in most cases) to any particular server deployment.

Further, looking in wp-includes/link-template.php gives you more insight to what kinds of tools are already available for creating links. Particularly helpful is home_url() which allows you to try to be as server agnostic as possible.