CGI Programming in C and Perl [Paperback]

Thomas Boutell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201422190 | ISBN-13: 978-0201422191 | Publication Date: April 29, 1996

The simple, static hypertext documents that currently dominate the Web canconvey a great deal of information, but eventually their limitations becomeclear. What if you wish to provide dynamic data--information that changes overtime? What if you want to sell products on your Web site and secure paymentinformation from users? Or what if you seek to provide a search facility thatpermits a Web database to be explored? Dynamic resources of this sort areaccomplished through CGI (Common Gateway Interface) programming. CGI programs can take advantage of any resource available to the servercomputer to generate their output and can also accept input from the userthrough forms. These two basic capabilities have led to a wide variety ofapplications, such as forms processing, generation of inline images and movies,the formatting of data sets based on queries to a database, real-time updatesto Web pages, and more. CGI Programming in C and Perl shows you how to create theseinteractive, multimedia documents via CGI programming in two practicallanguages: C, which has distinct performance advantages, and Perl, one of themost popular for CGI today.Applications and source code are presented in both languages. You'll learn how to: *generate HTML pages and images on the fly *get CGI access on your ISP's site *ensure security for your CGI-activated site *parse form submissions directly *send e-mail via forms and CGI. 0201422190B04062001

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nicely balanced treatment of CGI programming in both C, which has distinct performance advantages, and Perl, currently the most popular language for CGI. Written by the long-time maintainer of the Usenet comp.infosystems.www FAQ (and fellow Seattleite), Thomas Boutell.

From the Back Cover

The simple, static hypertext documents that currently dominate the Web canconvey a great deal of information, but eventually their limitations becomeclear. What if you wish to provide dynamic data--information that changes overtime? What if you want to sell products on your Web site and secure paymentinformation from users? Or what if you seek to provide a search facility thatpermits a Web database to be explored? Dynamic resources of this sort areaccomplished through CGI (Common Gateway Interface) programming.

CGI programs can take advantage of any resource available to the servercomputer to generate their output and can also accept input from the userthrough forms. These two basic capabilities have led to a wide variety ofapplications, such as forms processing, generation of inline images and movies,the formatting of data sets based on queries to a database, real-time updatesto Web pages, and more.

CGI Programming in C and Perl shows you how to create theseinteractive, multimedia documents via CGI programming in two practicallanguages: C, which has distinct performance advantages, and Perl, one of themost popular for CGI today. Applications and source code are presented in both languages.

You'll learn how to:

• generate HTML pages and images on the fly

• get CGI access on your ISP's site

• ensure security for your CGI-activated site

• parse form submissions directly

• send e-mail via forms and CGI.

0201422190B04062001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (April 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201422190
• ISBN-13: 978-0201422191
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but old. Needs to be updated., September 16, 1999

By 

"webgeekinc" - See all my reviews

This review is from: CGI Programming in C and Perl (Paperback)

Those of us who participate in the CGI programming newsgroups know Thomas' reputation and it's steller. When this book was first released, it was the best book available, and it some ways it still is. But the current edition is showing its age. It doesn't cover many new CGI topics or concepts. I still use this book as a reference now and again, but I wouldn't buy it today.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a little out of date, but pretty good, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: CGI Programming in C and Perl (Paperback)

I'd written many complex CGI scripts using Perl before even buying this book, and the concepts in it are sound and well explained. My purpose for this book was to make the difficult transition from PERL-based CGI programming to C-based CGI, and this book definitely served the purpose well. My only two complaints are: 1) There aren't enough code examples per chapter (remember what I bought the book for), and 2) The material is woefully out of date. Still, I haven't seen anything better at CGI using C out there, and I've been looking for a long time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CGI Programming in C & Perl, March 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: CGI Programming in C and Perl (Paperback)

An EXCELLENT buy -- you don't have to be a "Pro" to use the programs here -- but you can't be a rookie either... Get it "New" or "Used"--the price difference is insignificant--compared to what's inside the book....I bought this book a few months ago--here on AMAZON--and was delighted to find this book contained entire (web)-C-programs that ACTUALLY WORKED! If your web-server(CGI-scripts) are runnning at a crawl...it's probably because you are running a "convenient-scripting-language" -- instead of a C-program!! This book is NOT long-winded, but very practical. I have seen (repackaged???-or-similar)-versions of this code running on a few of the "higher-profile" web-sites. Over the years, I have acquired a STACK of other C-Programming Books--and I am afraid to buy any more of them--because I am tired of EXPERIMENTING to see which ones are PRACTICAL to READ, and I'm tired of reading GOBS of POINTLESS-and/or-BLOATED text--I am very happy with this book. I am a self-taught (Linux) C Programmer, and the C-and-PERL-programs from this book run well on Linux(kernels 2.2 thru 2.4)... This book is a great start in getting you up and running--but the rest is up to you--since you'll REALLY NEED to UNDERSTAND MODERN WEB SERVERS !!! ...and... ONE LAST NOTE-- this code may be considered "old" (written in 1996?) --it's NOT obsolete--but it still runs perfectly-and-flawlessly "as is" --on a modern-day Apache Web Server(Linux). This code has stood it's test of time. After you use these programs--it may become more obvious as to the "updates-additions-or-deletions" you'll want to make. Be sure to get Boutell's UPDATED CODE (from his web-site).