| PERL / CGI |
[Perl] Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. [CGI] "CGI" stands for "Common Gateway Interface." CGI is the method by which a web server can obtain data from (or send data to) databases, documents, and other programs, and present that data to viewers via the web. More simply, CGI is programming for the web. A CGI can be written in any programming language. |
| COBBLED TOGETHER SCRIPTS |
After 'hacking' simple cgi scripts years ago it suddenly dawned on me that I had a basic understanding of what the code was doing. With this new found confidence I decided to have a go at re-writing someone elses script from scratch doing things my way. Most of the CGI requirements made of me over the year have been to allow clients to update news sections on their site using a simple browser form. Using a variation of the script, simple reading and writing to a flat text file, I've produced 2 sites based entirely on this technique. 1. http://www.votesite.co.uk 2. http://www.wisemonkeytheatre.co.uk The 2 books which help me the most while climbing this steep learning cure are Custom CGI Scripting with Perl and Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide. |