Purpose of anchor() and $baseURL vs. relative URLs

[eluser]GSV Sleeper Service[/eluser]
code igniter urls tend to look like

Code:

http://www.foo.com/controller/method/any/number/of/extra/parameters

if you didn't use absolute urls your web server would have a hell of a time searching for images / javascript etc.
personally I use the <base> tag, then you can use relative urls in your views, but they'll be relative to the path set in the <base> tag.